Posted on 06/28/2007 10:40:42 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
A revolt is brewing among French journalists and opposition leaders against what they see as the iron-like grip that Nicolas Sarkozy is imposing on the media through his presidential power and ties to proprietors.
In a week in which there have been strikes at France-Inter, the equivalent of BBC Radio 4, and Les Echos, the main business daily, the professional body representing press and broadcast journalists has protested to Mr Sarkozy. “Attacks on editorial independence have multiplied of late,” said the Permanent Forum of Journalists’ Societies. The most notorious episodes have been the purging of negative material about Mr Sarkozy’s family from Paris Match, the big-selling glossy weekly, and Le Journal du Dimanche, the only national Sunday newspaper. They are controlled by Arnaud Lagardère, a media and defence billionaire, who calls the President his “brother”. Last year Mr Lagardère sacked Match’s editor for publishing a 2005 picture of Sarkozy’s wife, Cécilia, with her lover.
The journalism world and left-wing politicians also deplore Mr Sarkozy’s influence at TF1, the dominant television network, which is controlled by Martin Bouygues, another friend. Mr Sarkozy’s cosiness with TF1 reached a peak last week when he invited its stars to present their evening news from his office in the Elysée palace. The Socialist party accused TF1 of campaigning for Mr Sarkozy. When it failed to show or report a bizarre performance by the President at a summit press conference this month – he later denied being drunk – Segolène Royal, his defeated opponent, said: “If I appeared in that state, you can bet it would show.”
“This showed that Nicolas is at home at TF1 and TF1 is at home with Nicolas,” mocked Daniel Schneiderman, the media critic of Libération.
Mr Schneiderman is regarded as one of the victims of the long arm of “Sarko” because TV5, one of the state networks, dropped a popular weekly programme in which he took an impertinent look at the politics of television.
Libération,the only big newspaper systematically critical of Mr Sarkozy, said yesterday that he had acquired unprecedented power over the media.
“It is not a vast plot seeking to stifle freedom of the press from the Elysée Palace. It is more insidious than that,” wrote Laurent Joffrin, Libération’s editor. However, proof that ‘Sarko’s’ reach has limits can be seen from the fact that Libération’s controlling shareholder is Edouard de Rothschild, another one of his tycoon friends.”
Translation: The overwhelming commie/socialist bias of the frog media is under attack by Sarkozy
Sounds familiar.
yitbos
French media have traditionally been under the thumb of government to one extent or another.
News content is controlled to the governments liking with the downplaying of those car burnings in the last few years being an example. Chirac didn’t want people to get into a “hate Muslims” mood.
That Sarko would have such influence is nothing new. Socialists and non-socialists in France have always had media friends and allies.
Exactly. Now they want their freedom. Happy to be the compliant dupes when Chirac/Mitterand were in power.
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