Éditions Fayard announced on Friday, November 8, that it would take legal action against the railway advertising agency Médiatransports, following its refusal to carry out the poster campaign for Jordan Bardella’s book.
“The Fayard editions have entered today, through the company Hachette Livre and its advisors, M.are “Sarah Saldmann and Christian Charrière-Bournazel, before the Paris commercial court to assert their rights and force the Médiatransports agency to execute their broadcasting contract”declared the editor of the president of the National Group in a press release. This book was published on Saturday and is titled what I’m looking forIt is the first by a leader of the National Group published by a major publisher.
Médiatransports, which operates the advertising panels on behalf of the RATP and Gares & Connexions (a subsidiary of the SNCF), justified the termination of the contract due to the nature of the book. The authority declared at the end of October that “the promotion of the work of a practicing politician” infringed the “principle of neutrality” Specific for advertising management.
According to Fayard, “This constitutes a serious attack on freedom of expression. “Other political figures, from all sides, have been able to benefit from poster campaigns, without suffering discrimination or unequal treatment.”. “The cover of Mr. Bardella’s book, supporting this communication campaign, does not contain any political position”added the publisher.
Fayard is a subsidiary of the number one French book, Hachette Livre, which belongs to Lagardère and therefore to Vivendi, the group of conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré. This publishing house, one of the oldest in France still active, took on Lise Boëll as its head in June, an editor who has turned a polemicist and far-right journalist from the Figaro Eric Zemmour, a bestselling author in the 2010s.
