France: Investigative media outlets under attack in five gagging lawsuits

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the Media Freedom Rapid Response organisations in expressing concerns over the recent wave of gagging lawsuits initiated by companies against several independent media outlets in France, and denounce the clear message sent to the French journalistic community to not report information of public interest. We join the French journalists’ unions in expressing solidarity with the media outlets and their journalists and call for the cases to be quickly dismissed. On 21 September 2022, the group Altice sued the media outlet Reflets for “breach of trade secrets”. Altice is owned by Switzerland-based billionaire Patrick Drahi,…