Three associations file a complaint against the far-right magazine "Frontières" for defamation

In the face of media disinformation, human rights groups are fighting back. The Human Rights League (LDH), Utopia 56, and the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between Peoples (MRAP) filed a complaint on Wednesday, April 30, for defamation against the far-right magazine Frontières (formerly Livre Noir ) .

In January, their special issue, "Migratory Invasion: The Culprits," accused them of making a business out of immigration and exiled people. They also listed other associations and lawyers, putting a target on their backs.

"That our investigation disturbed them doesn't surprise me. That's what the country of human rights and freedom of the press is all about, they need to get used to pluralism now!" replied Erik Tegnér, a close associate of Éric Zemmour, when contacted by Le Monde . For their part, the associations are fuming. For them, the sole aim of Frontières is to "create in their audience the feeling of a migratory invasion, which is not based on any objective data , and to perniciously disseminate a racist and xenophobic discourse," the LDH protested in a press release.

The association claims that the media outlet run by far-right journalist Erik Tegnér is hiding behind the guise of a "so-called investigation" to fuel fear and hatred. Faced with "the violation of the ethical principles of journalism and the profession's duty to provide accurate, complete, and verifiable information, also when it comes to migration, the plaintiff associations are taking legal action regarding these statements (...) which manipulate reality," the association continues.

Utopia 56 announced in a press release the filing of three other defamation complaints against Frontières , as well as Europe 1 and Valeurs Actuelles , which "tried to discredit " the association "by falsely accusing it of opening squats in the city of Toulouse and working to maintain the residents who live there."