The number of
"Forbidden Zone"
broadcast on January 23, 2022 on M6 had earned death threats, in particular to the presenter
Ophélie Meunier
who had been placed under police protection.
Threats are the subject of criminal investigations.
The magazine had aroused substantive criticism, "Arrest on images" referring in particular to
"misleading emails and messages"
from the authors of the report.
"Quickly, some people appearing in the report denounced a betrayal of the journalist who carried out the report and claimed to have been deceived, manipulated and defrauded"
, recalled Me Jean-Christophe Basson-Larbi in a press release to AFP.
"They had agreed to intervene on the subject of secularism in order to promote respect for it and to live together to finally see themselves stigmatized and assimilated to dangerous radical Islamists thanks to the culpable artifices of a tendentious and falsified montage, of a dependent voice-over, and anxiety-inducing music.
Among these victims [...] are the student Lilia Bouziane - who had immediately publicly denounced the betrayal of which she had been the victim - as well as a former driver of the RATP whose remarks were tampered with.
»
Two complaints
The latter filed two complaints Monday in Paris against the director, the company Tony Comiti Productions and the M6 group.
A first simple complaint targets the offenses of fraud, concealment of fraud and attack on the representation of people.
A second complaint with a civil action is aimed at incitement to hatred on the grounds of religion and the publication of false information likely to disturb the public peace.
The lawyer stresses that his clients
“remain durably marked and bruised”
by this report.
Read also“I am convinced that I have done my job”: Ophélie Meunier returns to the death threats received after the report of “Forbidden Zone”
Contacted by AFP, M6 has not yet responded.
"Tony Comiti is extremely proud of this document which participated in what is the very essence of journalism, to investigate, inform and move the lines, despite the threats and the risks"
, reacted for his part the lawyer of the production company, Me Richard Malka.
