Staff at French public broadcaster Radio France voted on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, to approve a strike over the appointment of Valeurs Actuelles journalist Charles Sapin to a weekly radio slot.
During a general assembly in Paris, employees unanimously adopted a motion demanding that management withdraw Sapin's scheduled column on flagship station France Inter. According to participants, the inter-union representation at Radio France must file a formal strike notice as soon as possible if management fails to comply.
In their motion, workers expressed a categorical refusal of Sapin's arrival on air, stating that the values carried by the right-wing magazine were incompatible with those of the public broadcasting group.
Management defence of pluralism
France Inter, the country's leading radio station by audience size, has experienced widespread internal turmoil since the announcement of Sapin's hiring. Management defended the appointment in the name of pluralism as France enters a presidential election year, explaining that Sapin would host a Sunday column alongside editorialists representing a wide range of political views.
However, the staff motion directly challenged Radio France president Sibyle Veil and France Inter director Céline Pigalle. The document asserted that pluralism could not serve as a pretext to legitimize all forms of speech, noting that the planned Sunday broadcast had provoked anger and confusion among staff members and listeners alike.
Union concerns and court convictions
During the general assembly, which organizers said brought together around 100 people, union representatives voiced strong objections to the editorial decision. One trade union official questioned how far pluralism should extend, recalling that Valeurs Actuelles had been convicted in court multiple times for illegal speech.
The representative specifically cited a 2021 legal conviction after the publication depicted Danièle Obono, a Black lawmaker for the left-wing party La France Insoumise, as a slave. At the time of that publication, the magazine was edited by Geoffroy Lejeune, who later left to direct the news publication Le Journal du Dimanche.
Political pressures on public media
Another union member warned that public broadcasting staff were bowing their heads before those who had promised to behead them. The remark referred to recurring accusations from right-wing figures alleging left-wing bias across public media networks, as well as proposals by the far-right Rassemblement National party to privatize state-owned broadcasting.
Those political accusations previously led to formal parliamentary scrutiny in France. One year prior to the assembly, the Union des Droites pour la République, a political party allied with the Rassemblement National, established a parliamentary committee of inquiry to investigate the public broadcasting sector.
