{"id":48470,"date":"2022-05-11T20:11:52","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T18:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=48470"},"modified":"2024-04-28T20:17:37","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T18:17:37","slug":"le-peuple-new-right-wing-media-interview-with-raphael-pomey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/company\/media\/le-peuple-new-right-wing-media-interview-with-raphael-pomey\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00abLe Peuple\u00bb, the new right-wing media in French-speaking Switzerland. Interview with Rapha\u00ebl Pomey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Le Peuple<\/em> will be published in French-speaking Switzerland this week as a bi-monthly paper magazine and as a newsletter. website<\/a>. According to its editor Rapha\u00ebl Pomey, who deplores the lack of diversity in the French-speaking media, this new medium will give a voice to people with sensibilities that are little heard today. Le Regard Libre<\/em> welcomes the arrival of a new player on the journalistic scene in French-speaking Switzerland, and is one of the first four partners of the People<\/em>. Time for conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Le Regard Libre<\/em>Why found a new media outlet today?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Rapha\u00ebl Pomey: In my classic journalistic career (first at the Matin Bleu<\/em>, which later merged with 20 Minutes<\/em>, then to Morning<\/em>), I've always had good editors who have enabled me to cover the subjects I want to cover today with Le Peuple<\/em>. Nevertheless, my sensibility has never been dominant in the media I've worked for, nor is it in the media in general. I was a journalist for around ten years, then I moved into communications, as spokesman for the Lausanne police for three and a half years. After that, I wanted to return to my journalistic profession, but I discovered that to be perfectly free, you had to create something from scratch, since diversity is sorely lacking in the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

What role do you want to play in the media landscape in French-speaking Switzerland?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

We have a wide range of media outlets that cover the news, but often with an editorial approach. Visit People<\/em>, My partner J\u00e9r\u00f4me Burgener and I wanted first and foremost a medium that could react very quickly to the news. Of course, we have editorial content (which is what I like to do personally), but information is the heart of our newspaper. That's what sets us apart from a title like La Nation<\/a><\/em> - very interesting, by the way - which is mainly opinionated. Its contributors don't even call themselves journalists. As far as we're concerned, we want to bring the experience of traditional media into a framework that isn't underpinned by political ideals that aren't our own by default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why the name \u00abThe People\u00bb? Isn't that a highly political notion?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

It has to be said that for people on the left, \u00able peuple\u00bb evokes the extreme right, while for people on the right, \u00able peuple\u00bb sounds communist. To this contrast I would add a further variant: the Swiss Constitution<\/a>, which begins \u00abIn the name of Almighty God! The people...\u00bb. The idea is to say that the people don't belong to anyone, but that they do exist, quite simply, since many people think they are an irrelevant notion today. I like this notion, because I defend journalism that is open to the world, but also rooted in it. Journalism that expresses the sensibility of a part of the country, in this case the French-speaking part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Let's come to the question of sensitivity. You talk about information, but your manifesto<\/a> contains a number of politically charged positions. For example, the defense of a \u00abtraditional vision of the common good\u00bb and recognition of \u00abthe Judeo-Christian heritage of our civilization\u00bb. How do you reconcile this with what you call non-editorial journalism?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

We want non-editorial content that's still clearly delineated. We simply feel that facts and commentary are often mixed up. For example, last week I was listening to an RTS debate on abortion in the USA, in which all four speakers had the same position. Even if there's no comment from the journalist, the staging is already a comment in itself. It's not a question of forbidding ourselves from editorializing: editorializing is on our front page, and we have content that specifically editorializes. But when it comes to information, articles must be cold and rigorous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, you're more right-wing than left-wing?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Er... yes.<\/em> (Laughter)<\/em> From the outset, there's been a tension in this project between a certain conservatism that sometimes finds common ground with the left, and a liberal aspect that in economic matters is rather associated with the center-right. What makes us not a libertarian newspaper is that we defend a very specific cultural heritage, a traditional vision of the common good - we believe, for example, that the family must be protected from certain threats. And what makes us not left-wing conservatives is that we anchor these ideas in a defense of the free individual, a freedom of expression that we want to be almost total, a freedom of enterprise, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n