France: CFWIJ Expresses Deep Concern About The Repeated Attacks On Morgan Large
Location: France, Saint-Nicodème
Date: April 5, 2021
Investigative reporter Morgan Large’s car was sabotaged in a manner that could have seriously put her life at risk. This is not the first attack on the journalist either. Within the past year and a half, Morgan endured several such attacks at her workplace as well as her home. Over time, it appears that these malignant efforts to intimidate her into silence have increased in frequency.
On March 31, 2021, Morgan Large, who works for the bilingual French-Breton Radio Kreiz Breizh, noticed that the bolts of the back wheel of her car had been removed, a devious scheme that could have seriously put her in harm’s way. The attack appears to be linked to the investigative work Morgan undertakes while reporting on the agriculture sector in the Brittany region. There has been a sordid precedent on such attacks, that appear to be carried out in order to threaten and intimidate the journalist.
Last November, for example, the doors of Radio Kreiz Breizh’s premises were broken following the telecast of a documentary that featured Morgan. She also received threatening messages and phone calls at odd hours of the night. And in January 2020, her dog was poisoned. Journalists who work on the agricultural sector in the region have previously come out to make a statement detailing the terrifying circumstances they operate in.
“Public authorities continue to turn a blind eye. Worse, they accompany this omerta by putting the gendarmerie at the service of certain farmers to watch whistleblowers and dissuade any journalistic investigation. They are multiplying the measures the adoption of measures that infringe on public freedoms, protecting particular interests rather than the common good,” they claimed in a public statement.
As the statement indicates, Morgan Large is not the only journalist feeling threatened. Inès Léraud, a freelance journalist who covered the environmental impact of Brittany’s intensive farming, was targeted with social media smear campaigns as well as legal harassment by agri-food business owners. The lawsuits were dropped right before the case was supposed to go to trial and appear to be an intimidation tactic.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism strongly condemns these attacks and urges authorities to bring the miscreants to justice, and ensure the safety of these journalists. Large-scale industry that prioritizes profit over the common good, need to be held to account by the state, who are meant to function as the representative of its citizens.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.
