Sizzla cancellation: Reggaefrance in the middle of a controversy

The price of success? In two days, the editorial team has been branded homophobic and fascist. Since the weekend, Reggaefrance has been the target of a genuine campaign of denigration and disinformation, an assiduous one led by the association Tjenbé Réd, well known to our columns, since we have extensively covered its struggle since it was founded.

Despite everything that has been said about us since Saturday, none of these copycat journalists tried to reach us to get our statements. Sad press. To all of them, we have sent the following right of reply:


On Saturday 10 September 2010 at 10.14pm, the association Tjenbé Réd published on Le Post.fr an article entitled "Reggaefrance.com cosies up to the fascists". This article contains erroneous information, as well as allegations with a declared intent to harm the reputation and image of Reggaefrance.com (SARL and commercial brand), which in our view justifies its removal from the site and the publication of a right of reply.

The association Tjenbé Réd first claims that we are "still very close to singers like Sizzla, Capleton or Vybz Kartel who regularly call for the massacre of homosexuals". We would point out that Reggaefrance is an information site run by journalists, and that talking with artists accused of homophobia, as part of our work, does not mean ideological proximity to them. Reggaefrance was one of the first French media outlets to cover homophobia in reggae, our first articles on the subject date back to 2004 (the association Tjenbé Réd has "only" existed since 2007), and therefore has every legitimacy to continue this work, without having to be lumped in with the artists concerned.
It is simply the case that Reggaefrance has always favoured dialogue and mediation with artists, which in our view are more effective than pressure and sterile confrontation. It is therefore indeed a question of method that has set us against Tjenbé Réd since the association was created, and not a disagreement of substance on homophobia, which Tjenbé Réd is careful not to mention.

Tjenbé Réd then accuses us of "peddling untruths on various internet forums", without providing the slightest proof. Here is the message in question:

"To recall the facts, SIZZLA signed the Reggae Compassinonate Act in 2007, thereby committing to no longer utter this kind of lyrics, and to remove the songs concerned from his repertoire, thus making amends,
Do you really think you are changing the Jamaican situation for the better by simply pushing for the cancellation of the concerts of an artist who has since settled down, thus adding fuel to the fire when mediation has been working for 3 years now and the debate is making headway in Jamaica? What impact do you think this kind of action could have on the Jamaican people, other than heightening tensions between communities? You cannot fight intolerance with intolerance... still less condemn someone in anticipation of what he might potentially do..."

Finally, the association Tjenbé Réd accuses us of closeness to the far right for the sole reason that one of our team members posted the above message on the site nation-presse.info. Tjenbé Réd forgets to mention that this same message (typos included) was published a few minutes apart on the sites Têtu, Yagg and Megados, for the simple reason that these sites were taking up elements of Tjenbé Réd's press release: the aim was to provide clarifications in a controversy that was very likely to spiral out of control, which did not fail to happen. This message was therefore published on all these sites without prejudging their political colour. Here again there is a shortcut: expressing our point of view on a site does not amount to endorsing its editorial line.

We could just as well turn the accusation back on the association Tjenbé Réd: denigration and stigmatisation are indeed historic methods of the far right, which today discredit a legitimate fight against homophobia.