A backlash that is not going down well. The Human Rights League (LDH) and the CGT Spectacle union announced on Saturday that they are bringing a civil action before the Nanterre judicial court against Canal+. The two organisations denounce what they call “discrimination” targeting the signatories of an anti-Bolloré op-ed, after the group decided to stop working with them.
“Canal+ will appear before the courts for having broken the law”, CGT Spectacle and the LDH state in a press release entitled “No discrimination has any place in cinema”.
In the text, seen by Euronews, they refer to the “unacceptable and brutal decision” by Maxime Saada, chairman of the executive board of Canal+, accused of “discriminating on the grounds of political and trade union expression in order to muzzle the voices being raised within the industry against Vincent Bolloré’s growing grip on the entire chain of film production and distribution”.
“If some people go so far as to describe Canal+ as ‘crypto-fascist’, then I cannot accept working with them”, the head of Canal+ said last Sunday, the group being a major player in the financing of French cinema and part of the empire of conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
For the LDH and CGT Spectacle, this is not a “spur-of-the-moment reaction” from Maxime Saada to the criticism levelled by some 600 signatories of the op-ed. He “is well aware of the group’s pivotal role in film financing in France and of the dependence of the various players in the sector”, the statement continues.
The civil action, led by lawyer Arié Alimi, pursues two aims: to secure the annulment, “subject to a penalty payment”, of Maxime Saada’s decision and the appointment of a representative tasked with recording any discrimination within the Canal+ group.
Speaking to Euronews, LDH president Nathalie Tehio explained that this would be a mission of “monitoring”, which could be entrusted to an employee of the group or to an external figure: “It is up to the court to decide,” she said.
Action before the European Commission is also being considered, without a precise timetable, in order to punish what the organisations say is an “abuse of economic dependence” by Canal+, which they see as part of a broader trend towards the concentration of cultural industries around Vincent Bolloré.
The Breton billionaire controls a vast media and cultural industries group, which includes television and radio channels, publishing houses, as well as production and distribution activities in the audiovisual and film sectors.
International figures, including Javier Bardem and Ken Loach, have joined the movement led by the “Zapper Bolloré” collective.
According to Nathalie Tehio, the fact that the LDH and CGT announcement comes just hours before the Palme d’Or is awarded is no coincidence, given that Canal+’s response came during the Cannes Film Festival.
“It is a threat to the entire profession”, she concluded.