“The best media lies of the past year.
» France 2, AFP, BFMTV… The list of French media is growing in this 2023 Bobards d’or list.
Created in 2010, this ceremony organized by the far-right Polemia foundation, scheduled for March 5 at the Théâtre du Gymnase in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, aims to “unravel the biggest lies of the media and their political allies”.
Faced with the announcement of this evening, around fifteen left-wing political associations and organizations sent a public letter to the Theater on Sunday January 28 to denounce this “extreme right evening” and demand its cancellation.
😱 Nightmare: a far-right foundation is organizing an evening in the heart of #Paris10
👉 With the associative and political forces of the left, we ask the @Theatre_Gymnase to give up this evening!
@eelvParis10 pic.twitter.com/9cHYTBB5HK
— Maxime Crosnier (@MCrosnier75) January 29, 2024
Furthermore, on Thursday, the senator from Paris and spokesperson for the PCF Ian Brossat also sent a written question in the Official Journal of the Senate to the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati asking her to ban Gold Bobards.
“What particularly arouses concern is the nature and direction of this ceremony, which seems to be part of a hostile perspective towards most of the media, the profession of journalism and minorities by relying on hateful clichés and essentializing,” denounces Ian Brossat.
“Remarks that fall within the scope of the law”
In 2018, Les Inrockuptibles recalled, for example, that spectators had shouted “to the oven” when the name of Pierre Bergé appeared, then nominated for the “gay fib” prize.
Canal + presenter Maïtena Biraben was insulted as a “whore”, and some participants exclaimed “burn at the stake” at the mention of a Roma camp.
Organizer of the event, the Polemia Foundation, created in 2002 notably by Jean-Yves Le Gallou, former member of the National Front, claims to be "a think tank
whose
work is focused on the defense of identity, criticism of oligarchies and the fight against media tyranny.”
In their public letter, the signatories affirm that the 10th arrondissement is a “popular, inclusive, multicultural” district in which people from all over the world live together” and denounce an event in which “the expression of [certain] remarks falls under the against the law, whether they are Holocaust deniers, anti-Semitics, racists, sexists, LGBTphobes or whether they call for murder.