Danièle Obono portrayed as a slave: “Current values” condemned for racist insult

The political condemnations were unanimous after the representation of the deputy of La France insoumise (LFI) Danièle Obono as a slave in Current values, in an account published in August 2020. On Wednesday September 29, the ultraconservative weekly was sentenced for public insult of a racist nature.

The publication director of the magazine Erik Monjalous, sent to court for “Public insult to an individual because of his origin”, as well as the editorial director, Geoffroy Lejeune, and the editor of the article, Laurent Jullien – judged for their part for complicity – were sentenced to a fine of 1,500 euros each and to pay 5,000 euros in damages and interest to Ms. Obono.

Call from Emmanuel Macron

Accompanied by drawings of the deputy LFI of Paris iron collar around the neck, this seven-page article, entitled “Obono the African”, was the final episode of the weekly’s summer series, a political-fiction soap opera dipping contemporary figures into the past and supposedly, according to the newspaper, “Unveil the absurdity of our time”. We had seen François Fillon appear before a court of the Revolution, Eric Zemmour advising Napoleon in Waterloo, Professor Didier Raoult treating the hairy with chloroquine.

Danièle Obono did not have their notoriety, but Current values accused him of embodying, in his words, a current “Indigenist”. In the story, we saw her land at 18^e century on his “Ancestral continent”. Her host tribe sold her to slavers, also African. She owed her salvation only to a French missionary.

Emmanuel Macron had called Ms. Obono to tell him about his “Clear condemnation of any form of racism”.

Political “satire”

During the hearing at the end of June, the defendants explained that they wanted to point out ” denial “ of the racialist current to which Danièle Obono was, according to them, part “Vis-à-vis the slavery operated by Africans vis-à-vis other Africans”. They had invoked the “Satire” political, while regretting the turn that the controversy had taken.

Several witnesses such as the former editor of Charlie hebdo Philippe Val, cited by the defense, or the former French football international Lilian Thuram, cited by the civil parties, had succeeded at the bar. These sentences followed the requisitions of the prosecutor, who considered that “Racist insults disguised as creation” were “Just as dangerous as the frontal attack” and demanded a fine of 1,500 euros for each of the defendants.