The former BFM TV journalist, at the heart of the case bearing his name, reacts for the first time to the charges brought against him. In the National Assembly, he denies having been paid by Morocco and returns to the expression “Moroccan Sahara”.
This is Rachid M’Barki’s first real media appearance since the beginning of the case that bears his name. It took place on the occasion of his hearing at the French National Assembly, as part of the commission of inquiry chaired by Jean-Philippe Tanguy (Rassemblement National) which seeks to identify possible political, economic and financial interference of foreign powers in French politics.
From the outset, the former BFM TV journalist returned to the Forbidden Stories investigation. His main target: the journalist Frédéric Métézeau, Radio France’s correspondent in Jerusalem, whom he accuses of not having respected the adversarial process in his investigation. The reporter, in partnership with the Forbidden Stories collective and other international media, published a lengthy investigation last February on an Israeli office and its practices, the facts of which were the source of the internal investigation targeting the journalist Rachid M’Barki.
M’Barki had been cited as a receptacle for disinformation distilled by this agency called Team Jorge, in order to serve specific clients. Radio France journalists had notably highlighted a passage from a Rachid M’Barki program that Team Jorge had presented as a feat of arms.
For Rachid M’Barki, the passage and the information in question, concerning the sanctions targeting oligarchs following Moscow’s war in Ukraine, are not as important as that, and even seem to be covered by several other media. While M’Barki’s excerpt was broadcast in December 2022, the journalist recalled that a similar report had been broadcast by the regional section of BFM Var, by another journalist and another editorial team. The passage in question was broadcast to French parliamentarians.
During his hearing, which is still ongoing, Rachid M’Barki also pointed to the Radio France journalist’s lack of respect for the adversarial process. For him, the reporter would have directly brought the case of this passage to M’Barki’s superiors, without however questioning the main person concerned.
“MOROCCO DOES NOT NEED LITTLE TELEGRAPHISTS”
Morocco was obviously mentioned during the hearing of Rachid M’Barki. It was mentioned by the rapporteur of the enquiry committee, Constance Le Grip (Les Républicains). She pointed to the press report on the organization of a Moroccan-Spanish economic forum in Dakhla. The parliamentarian underlined the “semantics” used.
Rachid M’Barki quickly replied that he had never been paid by Morocco. “Regarding Morocco, it was even claimed that I was paid by Morocco. Which is total nonsense,” says the journalist. He adds: “Morocco has never given me a single penny to say anything”.
Returning to the report in question, he pointed out that there was a news item on that day. “It was the opening of the economic forum between Morocco and Spain in the south of Morocco, in Dakhla, in the Sahara. That’s why for me it’s news. The second point is that it takes place in Dakhla, which is a city in the Sahara,” he says.
On the question of semantics, M’Barki specifies: I said that this forum between Morocco and Spain had been made possible thanks to the warming of relations between the two countries, recalling that there was a diplomatic rupture and that even the borders were closed. Thanks to this warming, since Spain had recognized the Moroccan Sahara. This is my exact sentence, ”he says.
He also recalls that recently someone also spoke of the Moroccan Sahara: “I believe it is the Austrian Chancellor. And that was last week.”
Disregarding the question he was asked, the former host dwells on his “deep thought about Morocco. As soon as the subject of Morocco and its expression of the Moroccan Sahara took on the magnitude that we have known, I suddenly became, as if by magic, a Franco-Moroccan journalist. Before that, no one had referred to my origins in the press. In fact, there were even people who wondered what my origin was. And I myself have never put forward my Moroccan origins,” says M’Barki.
He concluded his answer about Morocco by saying: “I will add one last thing. And this is really the bottom of my thinking: Morocco is a great, sovereign country that does not need anyone to defend its interests. And above all, it doesn’t need little telegraphers.