Alain Saulnier

Alain Saulnier has been a journalist for over 30 years. He has also devoted a large part of his career to advocating for quality journalism in Quebec, both within media companies and within professional journalists’ organizations. It was under his presidency at the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec (FPJQ) that the first Guide de déontologie de la profession journalistique au Québec was adopted.

After working as a journalist and producer on several television news programs, Alain Saulnier headed Radio-Canada’s radio news service from 1999, and then all of its French news services from 2006 to 2012. As Director General, he brought a vision of investigative journalism to Radio-Canada’s news service, which helped to uncover scandals in the Quebec construction industry, corruption, political party financing and other important issues. It was under his direction that the program Enquête was created.

After being pushed out of the news directorate by Radio-Canada’s senior management in 2012, Alain Saulnier taught journalism at the University of Montreal for the DESS program in journalism until last December. In September 2013, he also became associate producer of the program Arrêt sur le monde, produced by CÉRIUM (Centre d’études et de recherches internationales de l’Université de Montréal) and broadcast on Canal savoir.

In November 2014, he published Ici ÉTAIT Radio-Canada with Éditions Boréal, a book that had a significant impact on the future of the public broadcaster. An English edition, Losing Our Voice, Radio-Canada Under Siege, was published in 2015. He has also contributed to several collective works on journalism.

In addition to teaching, since 2012, he has contributed to the reflection on culture in the digital universe with the organization Culture Montréal. He was a member of the board of directors until 2019. In 2017, he also co-chaired the Digital Commission of the same organization, which brought together all the cultural actors of the greater Montreal area to address digital issues and foster digital creativity.

He was also the director of content at Le Trente journalism magazine from 2015 to 2017.

In February 2022, he published Les Barbares numériques. Résister à l’invasion des GAFAM at Écosociété.

Alain Saulnier is a recognized expert and commentator in the fields of journalism and media for several programs and publications in Quebec.