“After the publication of an article on the CAMERA website implicating a journalist and three Arabic-language correspondents of France 24 regarding certain comments they allegedly posted on their personal pages on social networks, the channel’s management has immediately opened an audit on these alleged posts,” France 24 said in a statement

 

France’s public international news channel France 24 has decided to suspend four journalists working for its Arabic service over accusations of publishing anti-Semitic messages.

The journalists had been taken off-air pending an internal investigation into accusations made by media watchdog Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).

“After the publication of an article on the CAMERA website implicating a journalist and three Arabic-language correspondents of France 24 regarding certain comments they allegedly posted on their personal pages on social networks, the channel’s management has immediately opened an audit on these alleged posts,” France 24 said in a statement.

The media-monitoring group has accused the journalists of making references to the Holocaust and of bias in their reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on social media.

The journalists are Joelle Maroun, the network’s correspondent in Beirut, Jerusalem-based Laila Odeh, Geneva correspondent Dina Abi-Saab and general reporter Sharif Bibi.

According to CAMERA, which reproduced screenshots, one of the journalists, Joelle Maroun,  proclaimed in old messages: “It is up to each Palestinian to kill a Jew, and the case is closed” or “Get up, Mr. Hitler, get up, there are people who must be burned”.

Other messages exhumed by the NGO and signed by the three other journalists took sides against Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In its statement, France 24 said the decision “taken in the context of this situation aims to protect the integrity of the work of all the Arabic-speaking editorial staff of France 24,  whose editorial content, both on the air and in digital environments, makes it a balanced channel, non-partisan, verifying the facts and cultivating constructive debate thanks to the professionalism of its journalists.”

The broadcaster added: “As in all the languages ​​of France 24, the Arabic-speaking channel is illustrated every day by its commitment to the fight against antisemitism, racism and discrimination.”

The state-funded channel broadcasts around-the-clock international news coverage in several languages including French, English and Arabic