LVMH’s Bernard Arnault faces backlash over memo banning staff contact with select media outlets

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LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault has faced criticism from French media organisations — including some he controls — over a memo to staff at the luxury conglomerate barring contact with reporters from certain outlets. 

In an open letter published in national newspaper Le Monde on Tuesday, journalists’ unions at the media groups expressed their solidarity with the targeted publications. They reminded Arnault that the “mission of the press” was not to “relay the official communication of companies and institutions” but to inform.

“This constitutes one of the pillars of democracy,” they wrote.

The letter was signed by journalists’ unions from more than a dozen major publications in France, including Le Monde, Le Figaro and AFP, as well as news broadcasters France Télévision, BFM-TV and France 24. Staff from Les Echos and Le Parisien, which are owned by LVMH, also signed the letter. 

Arnault, whose group owns luxury brands Louis Vuitton and Dior, has had an at times fraught relationship with the media, including with employees at some of his own publications. He had an extended stand-off last year with the staff of Les Echos after journalists alleged the billionaire had their editor-in-chief removed in breach of their editorial independence.

Arnault wrote the memo to senior executives across the €309bn market value group in January — but its existence was reported only earlier this month by La Lettre.

The document told the managers he was issuing “an absolute ban” on speaking to journalists at seven publications: La Lettre, Puck, Miss Tweed, L’Informé, Médiapart, Le Canard Enchaîné and Glitz.paris.

“I formally condemn any behaviour consistent with maintaining relationships with unscrupulous journalists and giving them information or comments on the life of the group,” Arnault wrote. “Any breach (and this will inevitably be known) will be considered a serious infraction, with the corresponding consequences attached to it.”

LVMH did not respond to a request for comment. 

In their retort, the journalists’ groups asserted that employees were entitled to freedom of expression and association.

“The obligation of loyalty to which they are bound cannot allow their employer to deprive them of their fundamental rights by prohibiting them from any contact with people of their choice,” they wrote.

The ban was also an unlawful attempt to subvert protections for whistleblowers, they added.

The incident is the latest of several clashes between owners and staff in French journalism. The country’s media landscape is dominated by billionaire owners, who use these assets to project their status and influence.

Journalists at La Provence, owned by shipping magnate Rodolphe Saadé, went on strike in March when their editor was suspended over a front page criticising president Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Marseille to highlight the fight against drug trafficking. The editor was reinstated after unrest spread to La Tribune and BFM, which Saadé also owns.

In addition to the two newspapers, Arnault also owns Radio Classique and is in the process of buying celebrity gossip magazine Paris Match from billionaire industrialist Vincent Bolloré, who controls rightwing TV news channel CNews. Telecom billionaire Xavier Niel is Le Monde’s main shareholder.