Journalist Rachid M'Barki fired from BFMTV for suspected interference

French-Moroccan journalist Rachid M’Barki has been dismissed, following a decision by the management of the BFMTV channel to terminate his employment contract on 21 February 2023.

The news channel announced this measure on Thursday, following suspicions of interference against the former host of the “Journal de la nuit.”

The channel said the journalist aired contents without prior validation from his superiors.

An investigation by Forbidden Stories claimed M’Barki has links with an informant in contact with a disinformation agency based in Israel.

Since January 11, M’Barki has been suspended from the air, while an internal investigation was launched. BFMTV additionally filed a complaint against the informant in question for “passive corruption and breach of trust.”

In an internal email quoted by French newspaper Le Parisien, Director of BFMTV Marc-Olivier Fogiel recalled that he had been alerted by Radio France, a member media of the Forbidden Stories consortium, concerning M’Barki’s “suspicious acts.”

Fogiel said that investigations have allowed to “identify several sequences that were broadcast without respecting the validation process and the editorial line between 2021 and 2022.”

The BFMTV management intends to strengthen “controls” after the incident, said the report,  to ensure “a better security of the processes of content integration”, according to its director quoted in Le Parisien.

“This isolated case does not reflect the exceptional and rigorous work done (…) by the 250 journalists of BFMTV,” wrote Marc-Olivier Fogiel while announcing the dismissal, insisting on his support to his editorial staff and their due diligence.

For his part, M’Barki has so far refuted any allegation of interference.

However, he has previously acknowledged an “entryism” and a possible “error of journalistic judgment” from his part, saying he trusted his sources.

He designated Jean-Pierre Duthion as his informant and his source of the incriminating contents, which are found on the Israeli platform pointed by the investigation of Forbidden Stories.

So far also, the journalist recognizes his links with Duthion, without indicating whether or not he was aware of the latter’s relationship with the Israeli agency.

According to the Forbidden Stories investigation, Jean-Pierre Duthion was in contact with several journalists, and paid them in cash for publishing content. A claim he himself refutes.

In a testimony retained by the journalistic investigation, Duthion would have offered his services to other members of the BFMTV editorial staff, who decline to collaborate.

Rachid M’Barki, an emblematic BFMTV figure since the launch of the channel in 2005, denies he was paid in exchange for broadcasting the footage, and disregarded all suspicions of foreign interference.