The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners strongly condemn the cyber disinformation campaign against the press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The attacks have been orchestrated by the Paris-based communications agency “Progressif Media”, whose minor stakeholder is the Vivendi Group, a French mass-media holding company controlled by media tycoon Vincent Bolloré. The MFRR stands in full solidarity with RSF and urges a swift and thorough investigation into the disinformation campaign.

On 4 July, RSF revealed a two-month investigation, which included information from an internal Progressif Media document entitled “Vivendi Report”. This document detailed attacks aimed at portraying the press freedom organisation as wanting to “change the French audiovisual landscape according to its vision of pluralism”, while positioning the Vivendi-controlled CNews channel as the only place in favour of freedom of expression, in a context where CNews is among the candidate media being examined for the renewal of its TNT frequency for 2025. According to RSF, the attacks were triggered by a decision of the Council of State on 13 February which ordered, at the request of RSF, that the French audiovisual and digital communications authority (ARCOM) improve its enforcement of the the independence and pluralism of Cnews, one of the most sanctioned French channels, along with C8.  

In the scope of its attacks on RSF,  Progressif Media used a method called “cybersquatting“, a malicious strategy of buying domains with names similar to RSF’s, to denigrate the press freedom organisation. Of the five domains bought, one was active and called “Sectarians without Borders”: this was a fake RSF site that the attackers had paid to be ranked highly by Google’s algorithm to spread the same orchestrated messages against RSF, including the creation of pre-prepared hate tweets that Internet users could select and post from their own X accounts. The site was taken down on 8 July, a few days after RSF exposed Vivendi’s attacks.

RSF’s investigation into the name, web server and real IP address of “Sectarians Without Borders” led RSF to identify similar IT characteristics of a number of existing sites, including two inactive domain names linked to Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the far-right National Front party (now Rassemblement National), and two active sites: “the CNews fan collective” and “The Corsairs of France”, which first promoted “Sectarians Without Borders” on X on 20 February and called on its 16,000 followers to “fight” against RSF through a defamatory video shared on X on 6 March. Meanwhile, discrediting comments about RSF have also been broadcast on Vivendi’s channels, including on Radio Europe 1, a station previously criticised by RSF for its alleged lack of editorial independence, respect for pluralism, and honest reporting since its takeover by Vivendi in 2021.

“Counterfeiting, concealment, cybersquatting, trolling, disinformation…these practices are not so recent, but this is the first time a company operating under French law has used these gangster methods to serve the interests of a French media group (Vivendi) [and] promote Cnews.  You cannot defend information and orchestrate a disinformation campaign at the same time,” said Arnaud Froger, head of the RSF investigation office, in conversation with the MFRR. According to Froger, the Vivendi group would have told RSF that it was unaware of practices described in the press freedom group’s investigation and recalled its minority stake in Progressive  Media.Vivendi did, however, acknowledge links between Progressif Media and Canal+, a major French TV channel owned by Bolloré.

More widely, the disinformation campaign against RSF comes in the context of a growing threat to media pluralism in France noted by independent observers. In a new report, the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM), an annual study conducted by the Robert Schuman Centre, referred for the first time this year directly to “predatory strategies of media tycoons such as Vincent Bolloré”, highlighting the businessman’s alleged role in the growing influence of commercial interests and owners in media, arguing that this influence created a threat to media pluralism due to “oligopolistic control” and “the ensuing ideological polarisation” allegedly created by media outlets owned by Bolloré-controlled structures.

In this context, the MFRR stands in solidarity with RSF and all the organisations defending press and media freedom who are under pressure from the Vivendi group to silence their critical voices and to put forward those of the Bolloré programs. It is essential to resist intimidation in order to continue the fight against disinformation and for the right to freedom of expression, the cornerstone of democratic discourse.

Signed by

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

ARTICLE 19 Europe 

International Press Institute (IPI)

Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT)

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)