Philippe Val

Philippe Val (; born 14 September 1952) is a French journalist, singer, and comedian. He was a co-founder of the second iteration of Charlie Hebdo in 1992, serving as the satirical political weekly's editor and director. Val first became known as a member of the comedy duo Font et Val with Patrick Font from 1970 until 1996, and sometimes as a one-person show performer, with his dog "Jeff". He is also a singer and pianist. At the turn of the 21st century, he performed with Emmanuel Binet on bass. His last album was called simply Philippe Val. As editorial director, Val chose to publish the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons in late 2005. As a result of publishing the cartoons, Charlie Hebdo was taken to court for inciting hatred; in 2007 it was acquitted of those charges. Val co-signed a petition, "le manifeste des 12", together with Bernard-Henri Lévy, Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasrin and eight others, which denounced the dangers of Islamist ideology, calling it a "new totalitarianism". However, in December 2010, Siné won a 40,000-euro court judgment against Charlie Hebdo for wrongful termination. In 2009, Val resigned from Charlie Hebdo after being appointed director of France Inter. with Gates of Vienna listing him as a "victim of the 'repression of the counter-jihad movement'".

Later activities Val served as the director of public radio channel France Inter until 2014.

In April 2018, Val drafted a manifesto "against the new anti-Semitism", which was signed by 250 personalities in France including Nicolas Sarkozy, Manuel Valls, Jack Lang, Julia Kristeva, and Gérard Depardieu, condemning the "silent ethnic cleansing" of Jews by Muslims in certain parts of France.

Val joined radio station Europe 1 as a weekly columnist in 2021.

Publications Vingt ans de finesse (Font & Val) (with Patrick Font), Le Cherche midi, 1992 Allez-y, vous n'en reviendrez pas, Le Cherche midi, 1994 Allez-y, vous n'en reviendrez pas, la suite, Le Cherche midi, 1996 Fin de siècle en solde, Le Cherche midi, 1999 No Problem !, Le Cherche midi, 2000 Bonjour l'ambiance, Le Cherche midi, 2001 Bons baisers de Ben Laden, Le Cherche midi, 2004 Les années Charlie : 1969-2004 (with Cavanna), Hoëbeke, 2004 Le référendum des lâches : les arguments tabous du oui et du non à l'Europe, Le Cherche midi, 2005 Traité de savoir survivre par temps obscurs, Éditions Grasset, 2007 Les traîtres et les crétins : chroniques politiques, Le Cherche midi, 2007 Reviens, Voltaire, ils sont devenus fous, Éditions Grasset, 2008 Si ça continue, ça va pas durer, Les Échappés -France Inter, 2009 Malaise dans l’inculture, Éditions Grasset, 2015 C'était Charlie, Éditions Grasset, 2015 Cachez cette identité que je ne saurais voir, Grasset, 2017 Le nouvel antisémitisme en France, Éditions Albin Michel, 2018 Tu finiras clochard comme ton Zola, Éditions de l’Observatoire, 2019 L'Europe ou rien, L'Observatoire, 2020 Allegro Barbaro, Éditions de l’Observatoire, 2020 Dictionnaire philosophique d'un monde sans Dieu, Éditions de l’Observatoire, 2022 Rire, Éditions de l’Observatoire, 2024