Involved in three cases of sexual assault, Canal + columnist Pierre Ménès “reiterated” Monday on Twitter his “regrets” and “most sincere apologies” to his “victims”, a week after the storm unleashed in journalism sporty by Marie Portolano’s documentary.
Since its broadcast on Sunday March 21, “many victims have spoken out especially against me», Wrote Pierre Ménès, attacked for having lifted Marie Portolano’s skirt in front of the Canal Football Club audience in 2016 before, according to the journalist, to grab her buttocks, and for having forcibly kissed journalist Isabelle Moreau on television and columnist Francesca Antoniotti.
The controversy surrounding Pierre Ménès is all the more lively as the passages incriminating him were cut from the documentary “I am not a slut, I am a journalist”, Canal +, its broadcaster, being accused of having wanted to protect him. The encrypted channel has since launched an internal investigation.
«I listen and I respect the liberated word», Assures the columnist. “After having spoken with each of these victims (…) I wanted to tell you all that I unambiguously regret all these gestures of the past which were in no way justified.He adds. He believes he has “caused pain and embarrassment to friends without ever having intended to do so ”.
Last Monday, in “Touche pas à mon poste” (C8), the columnist had already expressed his “deep regrets” while considering that since “#Metoo, we can no longer say anything, we can no longer do anything”.
The “one man trial”
In one of the passages deleted from the documentary, unveiled by the site Les Jours, Pierre Ménès, questioned by Marie Portolano, loses his temper about the kiss inflicted on Isabelle Moreau, stressing that “she did not turn away” and “it’s not a smack that will make you dirty. You have to calm down».
He has since been sidelined from the famous Fifa game of which he was one of the star commentators.
For her part, Marie Portolano lamented Friday on Twitter that the “fight” and “speech” against sexism in sports journalism are not reduced “to one man», While his documentary aimed to “Put an end to (dys) functioning and awaken a certain collective consciousness».
Likewise, the journalist of “Téléfoot” (TF1) Nathalie Iannetta regretted in a tribune to the World on Saturday that we are attending the “one man trial». «We don’t want to destroy anyone. We just want to deconstruct a system ”, she insisted.
The broadcast of the documentary nevertheless led to the launch of internal investigations in other media, at RMC Sport and Radio France.
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