Blog founded during 2005 suburban riots has shifted French media's approach
The 2005 riots in France revealed gaps in how the French media cover the banlieues, or poor suburbs of Paris and other big cities. The Bondy Blog was founded during the riots, in an effort to bridge that gap. Today, 15 years later, it has shifted how the mainstream media approach subjects like police violence, inequality and Islam.
Issued on:
“We were the first to use the term 'police violence',” says Latifa Oulkhouir, 31, the director of the Bondy Blog.
Previously, “it was very difficult for people who don't live in the suburbs to understand that police officers can be violent and that some young people in the suburbs fear the police.”
The Bondy Blog went live on 11 November 2005, three days after France declared a state of emergency in the banlieues, which had seen nightly rioting for weeks. The disturbances were sparked by the death of two young men, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré, who were electrocuted when they hid in an electrical substation in Clichy-sous-Bois after running away from police who were conducting an identity check.
The blog was born out of an observation that the mainstream media were not properly covering the neighbourhoods where the riots were taking place.
“At the time, French journalists were not focused on the human stories behind these riots,” says Oulkhouir, who became director of the blog in 2019.
“French journalists were focused on the cars that were burning and the riots, and not the stories behind, or the reason for the anger: the relationship with the police, poor living conditions.”
Listen to an interview with Latifa Oulkhouir in the Spotlight on France podcast:
A group of journalists from the Swiss magazine l’Hebdo set up in the town of Bondy to report on the riots from the ground. After a few weeks, when they were leaving, they decided to hand over the operation to young people in the neighborhood, who could tell their own stories. And they set up a structure to support young bloggers.
The fact that the Bondy Blog was founded by journalists who are not French “tells a lot about the relationship between French journalists and the people living in the poor suburbs, especially around Paris,” remarks Oulkhouir.
Since then some 500 bloggers have written for the Bondy Blog. They have been students, neighborhood residents, civil society members — all supported by professional journalists.
Platform for new voices
“The point was to give a voice to people living in the suburbs and to make their voice weigh in the national debate,” says Oulkhouir, who today is one of two full-time employees, along with an editor-in-chief, who work with a team of about 30 bloggers.
They write about police violence, but also other issues that affect them. Seine Saint-Denis is France’s poorest, and youngest, department, with a high number of people of immigrant background.
The blog covers stories that the mainstream media would not catch on to or cover properly.
“We write about education inequality, with young people writing about how they don't have teachers,” explains Oulkhouir. “It's very important to us also to talk about history of immigration in France: why are we here and what is the story of our parents.”
Oulkhouir grew up in a working class family; her father immigrated to France from Morocco in 1967. She was 15 when the Bondy Blog was founded and always wanted to write for it. But becoming a journalist seemed too difficult, as she did not know anyone in the business.
She started writing for the blog after finishing law school, at the age of 23. She was delighted to find a place where she felt like she belonged.
“I found just people like me, from the same social background, with a similar story,” she says. She had not found the same connections with fellow law students.
Oulkhouir ended up going to journalism school through a partnership scheme the Bondy Blog started with the prestigious ESJ Lille journalism school, which provides financial backing and support for those trying to pass the entrance exam.
Influencing mainstream media coverage
Some 220 people have gone through the programme, and today Ouilkhouir estimates some 60-80 Bondy Blog alumni work in mainstream media in France.
“They bring their experiences and knowledge about how to talk about poor people, how to talk about immigrants, in the right way,” she says, adding that there is still a ways to go.
The way French media address Muslims, for example, can be greatly improved: “We speak about Muslims and Islam only when there are problems. It's never — or rarely — related to a positive thing.
“I know that these are hard questions and it can be sensitive,” she admits, but wonders why more people are not allowed to speak for themselves, the way the Bondy Blog does.
“When we talk about women wearing veils, we ask them, to give their voice. The French media took a lot of time to do that,” she says. “I remember in 2004 when there were debates about the meaning of the veil, what it is, etc., no woman was invited.”
Today she is seeing people use the internet to tell their own stories, through podcasts, videos, Instagram. As a journalist, she is a bit wary. “Treating a topic journalistically is important,” she insists. And yet, “I think it helps journalists to improve their work.”
The Bondy Blog is engaged journalism, says Ouilkhouir: “People realise that we are journalists, but we are engaged. I think more and more, the fact of being a journalist and engaged is seen better today than 15 years ago. We are not just hypocritical and arguing to be neutral, because there is no neutral journalist.”
Listen to an interview with Latifa Oulkhouir in the Spotlight on France podcast.
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe