"Respect privacy": Mathilde Panot justifies LFI's refusal to accredit Le Monde journalist Olivier Pérou

The leader of the rebellious deputies, Mathilde Panot, justified this Monday, August 25 on BFMTV-RMC the refusal by her movement to accredit to its summer universities the journalist from Le Monde Olivier Pérou , co-author with his colleague Charlotte Belaïch (Libération) of an investigative book on the internal functioning of La France insoumise .

"There is a code of ethics in journalism. The code of ethics is to rely on facts, to be contradictory, and to respect private lives," declared Mathilde Panot, while her movement strongly opposes the content of this book.

Entitled "The Pack" (Flammarion), it draws on more than 200 testimonies to tell the story of the movement from the inside, describing in particular the violence that is exercised there, the all-powerful nature of leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the fate reserved for voices that are too dissonant.

"We told the editorial staff of Le Monde that they were welcome, and we also accredited a photojournalist from Le Monde, so there was no problem with Le Monde covering our event. But when you have a journalist who compares us to a sect, who compares the rebels to animals, and who, above all, exposes our families and our children, it's a no," Mathilde Panot explained.

A speech in line with the comments made by Jean-Luc Mélenchon two days earlier on BFMTV . From Châteauneuf-sur-Isère, near Valence, where the LFI summer schools were taking place, the leader of the movement denounced a work made of "insults", "questions about private life" and "defamation", even if the rebels did not file a complaint on this grounds.

In response to LFI's decision, Le Monde denounced a "significant obstacle to press freedom and access to information" through its editor, Jérôme Fenoglio. While the daily newspaper was unable to send a journalist to cover the left, Libération was on hand through the presence of an editor other than Charlotte Belaïch. Belaïch ultimately withdrew from the summer university on Friday, August 22, after covering the event for two days. This was a way for Libération to demonstrate its opposition to Olivier Pérou's non-accreditation.

Earlier, several journalists following the LFI summer schools had denounced in a press release "unacceptable methods", writing in particular: "it is not acceptable that a political party chooses its journalists."

Also, around thirty journalists' societies, including that of BFMTV, expressed their opposition to LFI's choice.