French TV channel removes program replay after “Gaza genocide” remarks
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French public broadcaster France Télévisions has withdrawn the replay of its flagship literary programme La Grande Librairie from its streaming platform after actress and author Adèle Haenel used a free-speaking segment to denounce what she called a genocide in Palestine and accuse France of complicity.
The episode, broadcast live on France 5 on Wednesday, 9 September, featured Haenel promoting her first book, Viser juste.
In the closing “carte blanche” slot, she linked silence around sexual violence to silence surrounding the situation in Gaza.
Looking directly into the camera, Haenel declared: “The State of Israel is committing genocide in Palestine, and France is complicit. Do not accept the unacceptable. Sanction Israel and free Palestine.”
She framed the statement as breaking a “Television silence that has engulfed the country,” drawing a parallel between the denial and silencing of gender-based and sexual violence and the denial surrounding events in Palestine.
The segment, which is traditionally an uninterrupted personal statement by a guest, aired without interruption or immediate contradiction.
By Thursday 10 September, the full episode and the specific clip had disappeared from France.tv.
France Télévisions described the removal as a temporary “precautionary measure”.
The group said it faced multiple complaints filed with the media regulator Arcom and that its strict public-service charter requires a balance of viewpoints on sensitive subjects.
“There is no censorship,” the broadcaster stated, saying that Haenel had been free to present her book and deliver the live carte blanche.
Officials indicated the material would be restored if Arcom finds no breach.
Haenel responded swiftly on Instagram.
She said she had anticipated the removal of the extract and had recorded the segment herself.
“We suspected that France 5 would remove the clip. But they didn’t stop there. They actually removed the entire program,” she noted.
She argued that the broadcaster’s action perfectly illustrated her point: “What’s quite remarkable is that they are providing the perfect demonstration of the relevance of the remarks, which essentially said that there are certain words, certain realities that everyone knows about but that absolutely must not be said.”
She ironically congratulated France Télévisions and recommended the books of the other guests whose interviews were also removed.
