Guillaume Pley case: authenticated testimony lends credence to the theory of jointly managed accounts

The host of the Legend podcast has filed a lawsuit against Les Inrockuptibles following an investigation by the magazine. The document, which we were able to consult, cites the testimony of two former colleagues of Guillaume Pley, who confirm that the star's email accounts were managed by several people. These are significant testimonies, as they implicate the criminal liability of those who testified.

Is there finally light at the end of the tunnel for Guillaume Pley? Caught in a media storm for several weeks, the star host of the Legend podcast has decided to fight back. This time, he's taking legal action, after initially defending himself with a statement published on Instagram . In it, Guillaume Pley says he "deeply regrets" the content of the messages he exchanged with teenage girls when he worked at NRJ. It was the anonymous testimony of these young women, minors at the time of the alleged events, that ignited the controversy.

In his statement, Guillaume Pley also asserts that "these messages did not all originate directly from (him), as all (his) social media accounts were co-managed with (his) team." Without explicitly denying that he himself was the author of the offending messages, the former NRJ radio host thus suggests that other members of his team at the time may have written on their own initiative to young female viewers and fans of the show. This information is difficult to verify years later, and some of Guillaume Pley's former colleagues have refuted it.

Two key witnesses support Guillaume Pley's version of events.

But the host of Legend doesn't intend to let it go. On August 11, Guillaume Pley and his lawyer, Jade Dousselin, filed a civil suit for public defamation against Iban Raïs and Emmanuel Hoog, respectively journalist and editor-in-chief of Les Inrockuptibles. It was this magazine that, on August 5, published a damning investigation against the host, accusing him in particular of maintaining ambiguous correspondence with "young girls, some of them minors."

Guillaume Pley's complaint, which our editorial team has reviewed, is accompanied by two testimonies that corroborate the presenter's version of events. One of the witnesses, who was part of the NRJ on-air team at the time, states in writing that "everyone was mobilized to interact with listeners and fans via the station's social media, of course, but also via the main presenter's show accounts." "In practical terms, these accounts were quite widely accessible within the teams, particularly to co-presenters, interns, and the community manager," the same witness continues.

“These people could log in, post, reply to fans, and initiate interactions. It wasn’t a secret, it wasn’t an abuse. Similarly, Guillaume Pley’s phone was passed around among the community management teams, and especially among ‘JM from the switchboard,’” the same person added. “So when I hear that Guillaume Pley managed the show’s accounts all by himself, that everything that happened there was his sole personal responsibility, I can’t condone that,” this first witness concluded.

This testimony is corroborated by a second one, from a former NRJ manager. According to this second witness, "to say that Guillaume Pley managed his social media accounts alone is not only false but (...) nonsense. (...) The volume of posts, the continuous interaction day and night, the constant management of a fan community: no presenter (...) could handle that alone. And nobody did. The reality at NRJ at that time was that social media management for each show was a collective effort. (...) Messages could be sent at any time (...) without the presenter in question necessarily being the author, or even aware of them."

Authenticated testimonies that could tip the scales

These two testimonies are important and therefore support Guillaume Pley's version of events. Crucially, they stem from an official legal complaint: while the identities of the two witnesses cited by the presenter remain unknown, they must have signed their statements in their own names. The witnesses even had to fill out a Cerfa form including their full name, capacity, and address, a document by which they assume legal responsibility. This commitment is handwritten on the Cerfa form, which we were also able to consult: "Anyone who issues a statement containing materially inaccurate facts is liable to one year's imprisonment and a fine of €15000."

From a legal standpoint, the two testimonies presented by Guillaume Pley carry far more weight and legitimacy than mere social media accounts or anonymous accusations. Will this be enough to exonerate the founder of Legend? Guillaume Pley, who was a presenter on the radio station NRJ from 2011 to 2018, now heads a media empire, the flagship of which is the Legend video channel, which boasts over 3,7 million subscribers on YouTube. No complaint has yet been filed against him.