A decade long harassment of women and LGBT by French male journalists
The LOL League (La Ligue du LoL), a secret group of mostly French male journalists, has been accused of leading and coordinating a decade long campaign of harassment and abuse towards women, in particular writers, activists, women of color, and LGBT people. The media reports that so far three journalists have been suspended, one resigned, and one fired since the accusations went public. Four of France’s biggest news outlets who are implicated are: Libération, Les Inrocks, Slate France, and Télérama. The group has been initiated on Facebook in 2009 by Vincent Glad, Libération journalist. Group provided space for offensive content towards influential French females. Liberation reacted by publishing an article questioning the negative impact of the group and downplaying its activities. Twitter feed has been filled by hundreds of testimonies by victims of the group. Lucile Bellan, Slate France contributor accused the group of systematic harassment aimed at her confidence as a journalist. Benjamin LeReilly published an article on Medium underlining group’s anti-LGBT and anti-feminist harassment. One of the most disturbing examples gave Florence Porcel who has been interviewed for fake position of an editor-in-chief for a news programme in France. Audio of this interview has been later posted on Soundcloud. This has also been confirmed by David Doucet, editor of Inrocks, admitting he was the one behind the fake interview, but claiming he ‘didn’t know the extend to trauma he had caused to her’.