On Wednesday, June 16, staff at France’s Europe 1 radio found themselves in a meeting with a representative of human resources. At the private radio station’s Paris headquarters, journalists were increasingly at odds with the new editorial line imposed by management — part and parcel of the broadcaster’s absorption by its new shareholders’ Fox-like TV channel.

With tensions already running high, one journalist, Victor Dhollande, discovered that the human resources officer had been secretly recording the meeting on behalf of management. A widely admired but often combative employee who had earned accolades for his coverage of the pandemic, Dhollande lost his temper and was put on suspension until the end of June, with the possibility of his forced departure from the network.

By recording the meeting, management wanted to keep its thumb on the pulse of a growing staff revolt. On Friday, June 18, demanding that Dhollande’s suspension be rescinded, journalists voted overwhelmingly for a weekend strike, as airtime was filled with previously produced content or handed off to uncontracted employees and freelancers. Barring the restoration of editorial autonomy, the workers demanded that management grant the right to termination benefits through a “conscience clause,” which allows journalists to leave a media organization should its political bent change substantially. To their dismay, the journalists found out that the station’s particular status as a “press agency” would preclude their access to this legal provision.