Classified for “insufficiently characterized offense”, the case involving journalists and communicators aroused a scandal in early 2019, which had led to layoffs. Since then, at least two decisions of the industrial tribunal have been made for the benefit of the accused.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
The investigation opened for suspicions of cyberbullying in the LOL League case was classified without follow-up by the Paris prosecutor’s office, learned the France-Presse (AFP) agency of a source close to the file , Friday February 3. The without continuation of the survey opened in March 2019 was carried out in February 2022 due to an “insufficiently characterized offense”.
The case broke out in February 2019 after the publication of an article on the Fact-Checking site of Liberation Checknews. He revealed the existence of a private Facebook group called “Lol League”, bringing together around thirty journalists and communicators, accused of having cyberharceled other journalists and bloggers, notably women and feminist activists, at the turn of the years 2010.
At the time of her revelation, she had aroused a scandal in the journalistic profession, but also a wave of layoffs of several accused.
an open investigation in March 2019
Faced with the outcry caused by the case, some of the respondents had quickly published apologies, which they had deemed precipitated or exaggerated after the fact. SOS Racisme had seized justice, imitated a few weeks later by the association take the front page, which militates for gender equality in the editorial staff.
The Paris prosecutor’s office opened the survey in March 2019, by entrusting it to the proximity delinquency repression brigade (BRDP). According to a source familiar with the file, the case led to hearing by the police in the summer of 2021, under the status of free suspect, of a questioning, targeted by a double complaint for tweets of the of the 2010s. The interested party, member of the disputed group “for barely three months”, did not wish to comment.
Two other potential implicated were identified during the investigation but the facts concerning them were prescribed, said the source close to the file, while other people who consider themselves victims of this cyberbullying had given up To file a complaint for fear of online reprisals, they said. 2>
procedures for dismissal “without real cause”
These accusations had led to the dismissal of certain people accused of harassment. However, justice characterized some of them as unjustified.
The Paris industrial tribunal condemned in September 2021 the magazine Les Inrockuptibles for having dismissed “without real and serious cause” his ex-chief copper David Doucet, dismissed in 2019 following the affair of the LOL League, we learned on Saturday from his lawyer.
In July 2022, the daily Liberation who had dismissed journalist Vincent Glad for his participation in the LOL League, a Facebook group, whose members were accused of cyberbullying, was sentenced to dismissal without real and serious cause and vexatiously. A decision whose daily life has appealed.
Alexandre Hervaud, another liberation journalist also dismissed for his participation in the Facebook group, had been dismissed in the industrial tribunal in the fall of 2020. He called on. Newsletter “To the one” Every morning, browse most of the news of the day with the last titles of the “world” to register section>
“This information is not a surprise And clearly shows that after a long three -year investigation, the media account of a harasser group did not hold, “reacted the person concerned with AFP. He added: “This devastating event ruined dozens of life with layoffs, suicide attempts and depression. These people are still suffering today”.
Beyond the specific cases, the case had caused an important debate on sexism in the journalistic environment at the time of its revelation.