Sawt Falasteen - French paper launches first edition under far-right editor

Geoffroy Lejeune's appointment to the post of editor-in-chief at the Journal du Dimanche (JDD), one of France's biggest selling papers, triggered a mass strike by staff that lasted 40 days and only ended on Tuesday.

A large number of employees are expected to resign in protest at the arrival of Lejeune, whose rise to prominence underlines the rightwards shift of the country's media and politics.

Sunday's publication came as a surprise as it had been scheduled to appear in mid-August, ending several weeks of paralysis and missed issues since staff walked out on June 22.

The 32-page edition of the paper, which is an institution in France known for high-profile interviews across the political spectrum, devoted its front page to insecurity and judicial issues following the fatal knifing of a 15-year-old boy in northwest France in July.

Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, France's new secretary of state for cities, was the first member of government to grant an interview to the JDD under its new leadership.

The edition was produced mainly by freelance journalists and "volunteers".

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the strike was the longest in French media history since a 28-month stoppage by staff at Le Parisien daily that began in 1975.

Lejeune, 34, was until recently editor of far-right weekly Valeurs Actuelles, which in 2021 was found guilty of racist hate speech.

He endorsed provocative far-right media commentator Eric Zemmour during the latter's campaign to become president last year.

The Lagardere Group -- which owns the JDD, Paris Match magazine and Europe 1 radio -- is being taken over by French billionaire Vincent Bollore, who is reported to hold ultra-conservative views.

Bollore, a conservative Catholic, has been expanding his empire to take in TV channels and now print media.

The JDD, which has weekly sales of around 140,000, has in recent years toed a centrist line and been seen as generally sympathetic to the government of President Emmanuel Macron.

L.Hussein--SF-PST