A prominent French journalist said he was resigning from the role of expert analyst at broadcaster RTL from comparing French operations during Algeria’s colonial rule with the Nazis’ World War II massacre committed in France.
Senior journalist and broadcaster Jean-Michel Aphatie insists that while he won’t return to RTL, he stood completely at the atrocities committed in Algeria on radio stations in February, comparable to those occupied by Nazi Germany in France.
“I won’t go back to RTL. This is my decision,” the reporter wrote on X, a week after the radio station evacuated him.
On February 25, he aired: “Every year in France, we commemorate what happened in Oradour-Sur-Glane – the massacre of the entire village. But we promise hundreds of kinds in Algeria. Do we know that?”
He refers to the village that returned to the front line on June 10, 1944, the SS unit of the former resident department of Normandy. Leave a shocking memorial for future generations, the village has never been rebuilt.
Challenged by the host [the French] “The Nazis acted like we did,” Aphatie said.
On X, he admitted that his comments caused “debate”, but he said it was important to understand the full story of France’s appearance in Algeria from 1830 to 1962, saying he was “feared” by what he had read in history books.
After being paused by the channel for a week, this means “If I go back to RTL, I’ll verify this and admit to making a mistake. It’s a line that can’t be crossed.”
His comments prompted complaints to the audiovisual regulator Arcom, which has begun to investigate.
During the 1954-62 war, France’s actions in Algeria led to independence, and the previous decades remained the subject of frequent painful debate between the two countries.
Over the past few years, historians on both sides have documented many illegal acts, including arbitrary killings and detentions carried out by French troops, and history remains burdened to today’s French-Algerian relations.
France’s far right-wing right has long defended French policy, co-founded the National Front (FN) party with Algerian War veteran Jean-Marie Le Pen and died earlier this year, thus gaining strong support from French settlers who had to return after independence.
