Who is Rachid M’Barki?
Rachid M’Barki, a popular journalist and presenter at one of France’s most watched news channel, BFM TV, was suspended on 11th January due to him being exposed to influence from a major disinformation firm. The 54-year-old Moroccan journalist was a respected veteran at BFM TV and had been with the organisation since 2005.
The ongoing investigations delve deep into M’Barki and his repeated coverage of Israeli news like that of luxury yachts in Monaco, allegations of corruption in Qatar which were apparently planted under the pretence of ‘news for hire’. Commenting on his actions, M’Barki also added that he was initially offered such reports by an intermediary, but then had exercised his own professional choice in deciding to air them.
How did this scandal happen?
These reports were often also aired without the knowledge and approval of the BFM’s editorial department. Interestingly, these reports were often aired at the early hours of the morning, and as a result, such reports would mostly have gone unobserved. But soon they started gaining traction when these reports fell into the radar of a highly shadowy organisation called Team Jorge.
It is an operation based in Tel Aviv and run by a former Israeli special forces officer, named Tal Hanan who often uses the alias ‘Jorge’. According to media sources, Team Jorge is just one of many growing players in a world of disinformation and social media.
Organisations like these are usually private sector experts in intelligence who will misuse the internet just to damage an entity’s reputation or even influence an election in exchange for money.
Who was behind all this?
Thus, when such reports began rolling out Team Jorge noticed. And soon after that, they became viral on social media. This meant two things. Firstly, by making such reports air on mainstream media channels like BFM TV, they gave more credibility and importance to these stories, rather than such reports being passed off as usual gossip.
Secondly, reports airing on BFM TV will further give Team Jorge evidence for future clients of its reach even at a global platform. Though most of the stories produced by such organisations are planted by private entities, it has been found out there is a big probability the government might be involved in planting such stories.
Team Jorge, additionally, also sells hacking services to political and corporate clients trying to convert influence peddling campaigns.
Currently, BFM TV is going through multiple internal investigations after the discovery of such reports being broadcasted. The investigation seeks to discover whether or not he was the sole player from their organisation in this situation and why and how these were reports allowed to be aired without usual editorial check.
Tal Hanan has also declined to give specific responses to detailed questions about his or his organisation’s practices, but has given a statement denying any wrongdoing on his part.
It’s not just Team Jorge propagating disinformation out of Israel. Many such other private organisations also play a crucial role in spreading such disinformation. These organisations often have no legal existence, but strangely have functioning offices. Most of the employees in these organisations pose either as former intelligence officers or experts in military affairs.
These organisations strongly believe that their anonymity and the sense of mystery around them is what attracts their clients. The power of social media is their strength and that is what is at the core of their activities. They often create fake bots and avatars who have real presence in the online sphere and even have unique interests which make them more believable as a human entity.
Journalists who work for these kinds of organisations often are recruited from media outlets who have a presence at a global level. M’Barki is just one of the thousands of journalists who are still operating under the whims of such organisations.
