At the brink of the judicial deadlines for the Nice-Matin group, the “forceful” intervention of the two local communist leaders is not without basis.
Beyond the speculative management by its latest owners and the lack of a clear strategy or management capacity in a sector more distressed than others, the Nice-Matin press group represents an intangible value: that of information.
The fact that various leaderships may have had the weakness to sometimes choose the ease of propaganda over free and independent information does not take away from the fact that this voice must continue to exist.
The employees of the group have chosen to take control of their own destiny by creating a SCOP (worker cooperative) as encouraged by the new social and solidarity economy law. They prefer this solution over being taken over by other investors whose genuine intentions are not very clear.
Given recent experiences and certain names circulating… This is understandable!
Local authorities can take part in this project. Their silence, beyond the statements of sympathy and support, would be equated to an act of desertion. There is nothing wrong (quite the opposite) with becoming a shareholder, even a very minority one, in a cooperative society, in all transparency!
This would have the merit, beyond the financial support and moral significance of the act, to make institutional and transparent the often opaque relationships between politics and the press.
Finally, there would be no budgetary difficulties in all of this: It simply requires reallocating the amount from the “advertising space purchases” line to that of “equity investment.”
Gentlemen elected officials, gather your courage and make a move!
