Charles Biétry, the vice-president of Al Jazeera’s new pay-television operation in France, said that his offices had been searched by police last week following a complaint by pay-television broadcast rival Canal Plus.
Biétry told the Libération newspaper that his former employer had complained that Al Jazeera had engaged in alleged malpractices in the process of poaching staff from Canal Plus for the new BeIN Sport channels, which launch this summer.
“They have been searching in my office,” Biétry, a former head of sport at Canal Plus, said. “Do you know how many people I recruited [from Canal Plus]? Eight in all, including two ‘star’ presenters, out of 2,000 employees at Canal Plus.”
According to the AFP news agency, Canal Plus said that dozens of its employees had been approached by Al Jazeera to work for the BeIN Sport channels.
The police will continue to investigate the allegations.