The prosecution ruled that the offense was “insufficiently characterized” in this case involving many journalists and communicators in the early 2010s.
The Paris prosecutor’s office closed its investigation into suspicions of cyberbullying from the Facebook group the “LOL League”, a haunt of journalists and communicators in the early 2010s, AFP learned on Friday from a source familiar with the matter.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP the classification without action in February 2022 for “insufficiently characterized offense” of this file which had caused a scandal in the profession at the beginning of 2019, but also dismissals then at least two decisions of the prud’hommes for the benefit of the defendants.
Following an investigation by the Liberation site Checknews, many Internet users had accused several former members of the Facebook group, mainly journalists and communicators, and other outsiders, of having harassed them on the Internet at the turn of the 2010s, or to have, through their public criticisms, launched digital “packs” against them.
Faced with the outcry caused by the case, some of the respondents quickly published apologies, which they considered rushed or exaggerated after the fact.
Quickly, SOS Racisme had taken legal action, imitated a few weeks later by the association Prenons la une, which campaigns for gender equality in the newsrooms.
An investigation since March 2019
The Paris prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation in March 2019, entrusted to the Brigade for the repression of local delinquency (BRDP).
According to a source familiar with the matter, the case culminated in the hearing by the police in the summer of 2021, under the status of free suspect, of a defendant, targeted by a double complaint for tweets from the end of the 2010s.
The person concerned, a member of the disputed group “for barely three months in 2010”, did not wish to comment.
Two other potential suspects were identified during the investigation but the facts concerning them were prescribed, said the source familiar with the matter.
Other people who consider themselves victims of this cyberbullying had given up complaints for fear of online reprisals, said a source familiar with the matter.
Condemned media
These accusations had led to the dismissal of some people accused of harassment.
Since, Release and The Inrocks were condemned by the industrial tribunal of Paris for the dismissal of two of their journalists. The daily appealed.
Alexandre Hervaud, another journalist from Release discarded, had been dismissed at the industrial tribunal. He appealed.
“This information is not a surprise and shows that after a long three-year investigation, the media story of a harassing group did not hold up,” reacted the person concerned.
“This devastating event ruined dozens of lives with layoffs, suicide attempts and depression. These people still suffer from it today,” he said.
Beyond the specific case, the affair had provoked an important debate on sexism in the journalistic world.
