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Rabat - The Altice Group, the parent company of French news channel BFMTV, has announced terminating the employment contract of French-Moroccan journalist Rachid M’Barki, they announced on Thursday.

“The BFMTV journalist had inserted information in his reporting without the approval of his hierarchy and without respecting the editorial rules,” the channel said in an official statement.

The channel added that it is also filing a legal complaint over “actions to which BFM TV fell victim,” although they did not specify who the complaint was against.

The channel said the investigations it conducted “made it possible to identify several occasions between 2021 and 2022 which were broadcast without respecting the validation process and editorial line.”

M’Barki was suspended in January, as the channel started conducting an investigation into the content broadcast by him. He was the most high-profile of the suspensions within the channel at the time.

M’Barki told Politico that while he used sources that did not “necessarily follow the usual editorial process,” he did not commit misconduct.

“They were all real and verified. I do my job,” he said. “I'm not ruling anything out, maybe I was tricked, I didn't feel like I was or that I was participating in an operation of I don't know what or I wouldn't have done it.”

One segment that was pointed to as a catalyst for the investigation was M’Barki reporting on the Morocco-Spain Investment Forum held in Dakhla. The journalist referred to the city as Moroccan and used the expression “Moroccan Sahara.”

The news comes as tensions between Rabat and Paris continue to simmer, with M’Barki, who is of Moroccan origin, also having maintained close ties to the country.

France has maintained an ambiguous position on the Western Sahara dispute over the years, fueling tensions during a time where Morocco seems set on gathering diplomatic support for the cause.

Source: Morocco World News.

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