The Lies and Values of Alain Berwick

Alain Berwick, a man who had a great career at RTL and liked to philosophize about the values of RTL. In 2016, he fell out of the nest he had built for himself so beautifully. Now he could make a big comeback at RTL. Or rather, buy the whole bird.

What the values of RTL were, Maison Moderne wanted to know in an interview in June 2016 from the then director of RTL Luxembourg. Alain Berwick knows what kind of answer he needs. Negotiations with the government are underway on a new concession agreement, in which RTL is to receive a direct subsidy of millions for the first time. So he has to present his channel as a serious source of information.

There would be a „code of ethics“, Alain Berwick answers. „Commerce and journalism are separated“, anyone who would cross this divide „has no place with us“. Even anyone who accepts a gift over €75, or does someone a favor with a report, „has no place with us“. Alain Berwick knows that it depends on the good image of „the RTL brand“ to be accepted in Luxembourg and to maintain its monopoly position. So he claims things that he must know are absolute nonsense.

Mixing is not a problem, but the logic behind RTL Luxembourg

A striking example? At about the same moment that Alain Berwick philosophizes about the values of RTL, RTL reports on the app „Kliber“, which is supposed to help with job searches. RTL does not just report once, but with many reports about Kliber and also presents the app at „RTL Job Day“. „Kliber S.A.“ is, however, a company in which RTL itself has become an investor, with Alain Berwick personally sitting on the board of directors.

The fact that there is no separation between journalism and commerce at RTL is therefore not a recent phenomenon. Alain Berwick himself stood for this very mixing like hardly anyone else. Alain Berwick started his career at Cactus in 1983. Via IP, RTL’s advertising department, he landed at CLT-UFA in 1986. In 1993 he became director of IP and in 1994 additional director at RTL Radio and Television. Alain Berwick is simultaneously head of advertising and head of media. As if that weren’t enough, in the course of his career he sits on the board of directors of CLT-UFA and also of BCE, is chairman of the board of directors of Eldoradio, director of „Media Assurances S.A.“, which is part of CLT-UFA, as well as a shareholder in pretty much all the dubious corporate structures that were built to get the big deal with the RTL building in Kirchberg. He is the architect of the money machine RTL Luxembourg.

First an inglorious departure, then a sensational comeback?

Ironically, Alain Berwick had to resign just a few months after the interview about RTL’s values, after he interfered in editorial decisions and thereby helped trigger the Lunghi affair. The incident was the logical consequence of the type of boulevard journalism that Alain Berwick had established at RTL. „RTL Boulevard“ and „Model made in Luxembourg“ are also two of the show formats that stood for the Berwick principle. Along with Alain Berwick, Marc Thoma and the radio’s editor-in-chief, Guy Kaiser, are also leaving, RTL. For the top of RTL, the rule is: everything must change so that everything can remain the same.

Isn’t Alain Berwick now just a thing of the past? Guy Kaiser is now just running a right-wing polemic blog and Marc Thoma is failing with „Apart-TV“ and things have also become quiet around ex-director Alain Berwick. After leaving RTL, he is just bringing a few real estate deals for RTL to an end and is sitting on the board of directors of large corporations. Unfortunately, there seem to be signs that Alain Berwick could be not only the past, but also the future of RTL, as Paperjam reported. According to the newspaper „Land“, a concept by Alain Berwick is on the table at RTL Group. Together with investors, the ex-RTL boss wants to take over the profitable radio chain and the lucrative website RTL.lu in 2030, after the end of the current concession agreement. Presumably to re-establish his values there.