Politics at Cannes > Right wing Canal+ drops bomb on Cannes Film Festival

 

French film giant Canal+ to blacklist hundreds over petition against right-wing owner

FRANCE

France's biggest film producer Canal+ will no longer work with hundreds of industry professionals who signed a petition against right-wing billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré, the group announced Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival, sending shockwaves through the European film industry. The petition called on people to oppose "the growing grip of the far right" on French film.

By: FRANCE 24

Video by: Nicholas RUSHWORTH

The head of France's biggest film producer, Canal+, said Sunday that the group would no longer work with 600 industry professionals who signed a petition against right-wing billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré.

The announcement, made at the Cannes Film Festival, is likely to send shockwaves through the European industry at the annual gathering of the world's movie elite on the French Riviera.

READ MOREFrench media tycoon Vincent Bolloré casts shadow over Cannes opening

"I experienced that petition as an injustice toward the Canal+ teams, who are committed to defending the independence of Canal+ and the full diversity of its choices," chief executive Maxime Saada said on Sunday in Cannes.

"I will no longer work with and I no longer want Canal to work with the people who signed that petition," he added.

The petition called people to mobilise against "the growing grip of the far right" on the film industry under the influence of Bolloré and the Canal+ group.

Maxime Saada, président de la chaîne de télévision privée française Canal+, pose à son arrivée à la 46e cérémonie des César, qui s'est tenue à l'Olympia à Paris le 12 mars 2021. © Thomas Samson, AFP

Signatories included French superstar Juliette Binoche as well as director Arthur Harari, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning "Anatomy of a Fall" in 2023 and is premiering his film "The Unknown" in the main competition in Cannes.

Emmanuel Marre, whose film "A Man Of His Time" about France's collaboration under Nazi rule, is also in the Cannes competition and also signed the petition.

The tumult mirrors similar upheaval in the media and publishing worlds where Bolloré, who is close to far-right politicians, is reshaping businesses he controls from television channels to publishing houses.

In a sign of Bolloré's divisive reputation, the Canal+ logo was booed in Cannes at some screenings this year, including for the opening film "The Electric Kiss".

Last month, more than 100 authors at the Bolloré-owned Grasset publishing group, home to some of the biggest names in French literature, said they would leave after the ousting of its long-time CEO.

Bollore's aggressive expansion into the French media in recent years has been cheered by conservatives as rebalancing what they see as long-standing left-wing bias.

The billionaire, a devout Catholic who made his money in logistics, has been frequently compared by commentators to Australian-born US media mogul Rupert Murdoch, with the Bolloré-owned CNews news channel bearing similarities to Murdoch's right-wing US network Fox News.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Woman Fined $32,700 for Wearing Niqab in Italian Town Hall

    A woman wearing a niqab © Farid Alouache / Reuters

A Muslim woman was ordered to pay a hefty fine for refusing to lift her veil for an identity check after visiting a youth meeting at a town hall in north-east Italy. She was initially sentenced to four months in jail and a much smaller fine, but this was later changed by a higher judicial authority.

The 40-year-old Albanian who wears a niqab – an Islamic full-face veil leaving only a small opening for the eyes – attended local youth parliament meeting in the town of Pordenone in late October. The woman’s son was participating in the event.

The woman lived in the neighboring town of San Vito al Tagliamento for 16 years and was granted Italian citizenship several years ago.

She consistently refused to remove her veil for identification purposes despite the town mayor, Antonio Di Bisceglie, repeatedly asking her to do it. Di Bisceglie, who is from Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party, then called police officers, who took the woman away from the meeting.

However, she then returned, forcing Di Bisceglie to suspend the meeting so that the dispute did not degenerate into a verbal battle in the presence of minors, the local Messaggero Veneto news outlet reported.

The case was then brought to court, where a local prosecutor, Federico Facchin, charged the woman with concealing her identity. He sentenced her to four months in prison and a fine amounting to €600 ($650). The initial sentence was then changed by a higher judicial authority and the woman was ordered to pay a fine amounting to €30,000 ($32,700).

Law enforcement authorities stressed that the decision has nothing to do with religion and was based exclusively on security concerns.

According to the prosecutors, the woman violated a 1975 law that prohibits covering one’s face in public places in a way that prevents successful identification. The lawyer of the woman told Messaggero Veneto that he would appeal the decision as the law in question forbids facial coverings without “justification” and religions reasons could be considered sufficient justification in this case.

Meanwhile, wearing Muslim apparel becomes increasingly controversial issue in Europe. In summer 2016, several French towns and cities, including Cannes, banned burqinis, Muslim full-body swimsuits, on city beaches, sparking a nationwide debate on the issue.

A bill envisaging a ban on burqas was introduced on August 16 in Germany. The idea of banning burqas is also supported by the vast majority of Germans as an August poll conducted by the German ARD broadcaster demonstrated that 30 percent of German citizens advocate banning the burqa in public places and 50 percent of Germans want to forbid them completely.

In late September, the Swiss parliament approved a draft bill envisaging a nationwide burqa ban and, three days later, Bulgaria followed suit and banned burqas in public places.

Europe also witnessed several controversial incidents’ involving Muslim veils. In September, a restaurant owner in Germany expelled a Muslim woman for refusing to remove her niqab, sparking a social media storm.

In August, a German court backed a school authorities’ decision which banned a student from attending classes wearing a full face veil. The next day, the German Education and Science Workers’ Union, which is a teachers’ association, criticized the court decision, calling it counter-productive.