The Occitanie Press Club is 40 years old: a player that has become essential in Montpellier among journalists and communicators

L’équipe de salariés et les bénévoles toujours au service des adhérents du club de la presse. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

L'association, qui compte près de 1 500 adhérents, accompagne la profession au fil des mutations depuis 1984

It has always been part of the media landscape. The Montpellier Press Club, which expanded to the Occitanie region in 2017, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Born in 1984 under the leadership of a handful of journalists, the Club has been able to adapt to successive changes. The association, which now has almost 1,500 members and a team of seven employees, has never been in such good shape. Chaired by Olivier Roirand since the end of 2021, the structure which supports journalists and communicators in the evolution of their profession through a range of training, meetings and debates is still located at Place du Numéro d’Or, in Antigone .

Job and internship offers

In addition to its mission as "employment center" for the press and communication professions (already 275 offers distributed since the start of the year), the Club was there during major moments of crisis. The organization of the mobilization following the Charlie Hebdo attacks on January 7, 2015 was remembered: 100,000 people marched in the streets of Montpellier behind the banner ” ;We are all Charlie. "Taking social issues head-on, this is the DNA of the Club", thus recalls the ;rsquo;tireless director, Agnès Maurin.

Of all the fights including that of freedom of expression

Present since 2000, it has been in every fight alongside successive presidents, fifteen in total since 1984. The association has stepped up many times, discreetly, to defend the values ​​of the press card. Example with this meeting between Yellow Vests and journalists after cameramen, violently attacked, had to take refuge in a stairwell. Intervene with a prefect or a prosecutor to defend freedom of expression. A corporate body, the club has also been able to broaden its scope of action, notably by intervening in schools with Esprit' Critic. The aim of this commission, approved by National Education, is to fight against the production of disinformation, particularly through social networks. The "Women and media" commission, initiated in 2014, resulted in two editions of the Directory of Experts. A tool for journalists to diversify the profiles of speakers and grant greater visibility to women. Freelance workshop, Hérault Traits Libres festival, Press Nights, Fuse, quarterly magazine… the list of initiatives has grown over the years thanks to the involvement of volunteers, numbering 150 at present. 

The challenges of artificial intelligence

This evening, it is around the issues of artificial intelligence that the Club brings together its members at Maison Voltaire in Frontignan. Before a festive evening facing the sea since the club remains above all a story of meetings and collective intelligence.

Thursday June 20, from 5:30 p.m., Maison Voltaire in Frontignan, round table on the challenges of AI in the media, communication and ICC with Enora Goulard, director innovation at Matrice, Me Eloïse Patocki-Tomas, lawyer, Marius Bertolucci, lecturer, Jean-Marie Charon, media sociologist, Julien Gobin economist and philosopher.