In Couthures, a festival of journalism without taboos

You know, my grandfather was blacksmith, tells Jean-Michel Moreau, 65 years old. If I do not fight against something resistant, I get bored. " Mayor of Couthures-sur-Garonne (Lot-et-Garonne) since 2008, this sparkling retiree loves challenges. It is important: to install the International Festival of Journalism, organized by the Group Le Monde, in the streets of his village of 390 inhabitants, and to make sure that the exchanges are as fluent as the flow of the river. "What worries me is of course the aging of the population, but also that we drift towards too much peace. If we do not want to disappear, we must bring life here.

Life, during this long weekend (13-14-15 July), teems with the church in the school, from the old rope factory to the Place de la Cale, with some 4,500 festival-goers during the three days. Under a blazing sun, panama screwed on the head, we sit in the straw or on plastic chairs, we peck a piece of workshop or we enjoy the entirety of a conference. But do the locals mix with journalists, mostly Parisians? Are we really breaking down the barriers between city and country? Between media and citizens? At the opening of the festival, the journalist of World Gilles van Kote announces the color: "We want there to be debate. We are ready for any challenge, without taboos. "

Mordant exchanges

Indeed, exchanges are sometimes bitten in this huge open forum. The journalist David Pujadas experienced this on Friday 13, in the stifling heat of the "Garden" space, under the watchful eye of the neighbor's hens. A man in his fifties, who says he has not voted since 2005, intervenes: "Help me tell me that your news is not subjective! – Objectivity does not exist, replies David Pujadas. Does this mean that there is a bias?

Couthures is above all a living laboratory. To encourage the public to participate, a "Samoan Circle" sits in the choir of the church. Unlike musical chairs, a seat is always available for anyone who wants to speak. As a result, the fifteen early birds on Friday almost all gave their opinion on the excesses and benefits of digital. "With the algorithms, everyone locks himself in his bubble" saddles a participant

Outside, the "speed dating" sessions are not algorithmic: a simple inscription on the wall of the village is enough to afford a fifteen minute tête-à-tête with Jean-Michel Aphatie, ex-France info, or Elisabeth Lévy, of Causer. Another experience of direct exchange: the morning of Sunday the 15th, the festival-goers make tastings from 10 am, at the workshop "The words of the wine: a lexicon for the initiated". "We are not here to dispense knowledge, we want it to be very interactive! launches the journalist Ophélie Neiman, the "Miss GlouGlou" of World . So, is this wine "tutti-frutti" ? "Adorable" ? " Chubby with some bulges" ? Everyone defends his opinion, and that's good: "We are all the uncultivated someone" rebadures Arnaud Daphy, consultant in the wine industry.

Questions crazy

At any time you raise your elbow. "Nothing is worse than a Belgian who has drunk and who will have to make sentences! », warns the actor Benoît Poelvoorde, godfather of this edition. After diving in the Garonne in front of a local paparazzi, he talks about media on stage with Sonia Devillers, a journalist with France Inter. The atmosphere is both serious and schooly. At the corner of a street, we meet columnist Raquel Garrido and MP Alexis Corbière posing in front of a poster bearing the inscription: "Should we sleep with an elected? "The graphic designer from Bordeaux Jérémie Bonne dresses the village live with his quirky questions: " Super Scrooge Giant is it a newspaper propaganda Medef? Or: "Interviewer, is it deceiving?

For dinner, everyone settles at the same table, like a giant banquet: local tomatoes and duck bads reconcile each other . And, from 23 hours, "Meetings in the moonlight" play on the intimacy of the night. The journalist and writer Adeline Fleury begins by reading an erotic text that could hit the ears of the most chaste. The setting is exquisite, under the stars, facing the Garonne. Then Pierre Haski, a journalist at L'Obs, made his entry: "This is not an extra lecture or a lecture. We do not want inhibition or a brake on dialogue. But the old reflexes take over, and the questions remain very timid: the psychiatrist Serge Tisseron clings to his microphone to talk about robots

Debates on artificial intelligence? "Too elitist", according to Patrick, the manager of P'tit Troquet, the only bistro in the village. A glbad in his hand, he quips about his new customers "Parisians" : "The people here work twelve hours a day in the fields: when they come out of work, they have something else to do than to wonder about our feelings for robots! However, for several weeks now, more than 120 volunteers from the village and the surrounding area have been putting their heart and soul into action. Without them, no festival. Sunday night, during the first half of the World Cup final, the storm is unleashed. The prefecture disconnects the giant screen. So, we get organized, we find cables, we finish the match at the inhabitant. With the Blues, finally, we are all together.