Paris-based media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders has alleged that a PR firm linked to conservative French businessman Vincent Bolloré is leading a “vast disinformation campaign” to “discredit” it.
In a report published on its website, the RSF said that the firm Progressif Media “targeted” it through a fake lookalike website and “used Kremlin-like techniques” to discredit it, while operating from the Paris offices of Bolloré-owned Vivendi. It said the businessman is “credited with helping France’s far-right gain unprecedented power”.
The PR firm reportedly set up false websites that looked like that of the RSF and also sent out messages on X, allegedly accusing RSF of trying to censor news channel CNews.
In February, in an appeal filed by the RSF, France’s top court had ordered the country’s broadcasting regulator ARCOM to ensure that CNews complies with “truthfulness, independence, and pluralism requirements in French law”.
The RSF said that it has been targeted “by the Vivendi group’s media” following the “historic decision made by France’s top court”.
It said: “The court’s decision is simply the consequence of CNews’ disregard for French laws regulating journalistic ethics, including rules that govern the air time allotted to politicians and requirements to cover diverse opinions. Rather than updating their content to adhere to the cardinal rules of journalism, Vivendi was swift to retaliate: programs on CNews and their radio station Europe1 made barbed comments about the court ruling, and the front page of their weekly newspaper Journal du Dimanche portrayed RSF as an enemy of freedom of expression.”
The advocacy group added that “Vivendi is not only a shareholder of Progressif Media but houses them in their offices, which are located in Paris’ 8th arrondissement.”
While reports said Vivendi has denied having any knowledge of “possible illegal practices attributed to Progressif Media by RSF”, its spokesperson has allegedly confirmed that “Progressif Media had been deployed by a part of its media empire to counter certain arguments about CNews”.
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