Gazeta Lodz - French paper launches first edition under far-right editor

NYSE - LSE

CMSC	0.16%	21.31	$
BCC	-1.49%	78.77	$
BP	-0.38%	42.34	$
CMSD	0.09%	21.18	$
JRI	-0.32%	12.4	$
NGG	-1.38%	79.43	$
RYCEF	-0.48%	20.75	$
RIO	0.08%	104.78	$
GSK	-2.31%	50.27	$
BTI	-2.06%	56.28	$
BCE	-0.38%	23.4	$
VOD	-0.38%	15.88	$
AZN	-1.06%	164.52	$
RELX	2.64%	36.3	$
RBGPF	-0.62%	70.69	$

French paper launches first edition under far-right editor

ECONOMY 06.08.2023

French paper launches first edition under far-right editor / Photo: © AFP

France's only national Sunday newspaper this weekend published its first edition under the leadership of a controversial far-right editor, whose appointment had prompted an unprecedented and lengthy staff walkout.

Text size:

Geoffroy Lejeune's appointment to the post of editor-in-chief at the Journal du Dimanche (JDD), one of France's biggest selling papers, triggered a mass strike by staff that lasted 40 days and only ended on Tuesday.

A large number of employees are expected to resign in protest at the arrival of Lejeune, whose rise to prominence underlines the rightwards shift of the country's media and politics.

Sunday's publication came as a surprise as it had been scheduled to appear in mid-August, ending several weeks of paralysis and missed issues since staff walked out on June 22.

The 32-page edition of the paper, which is an institution in France known for high-profile interviews across the political spectrum, devoted its front page to insecurity and judicial issues following the fatal knifing of a 15-year-old boy in northwest France in July.

Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, France's new secretary of state for cities, was the first member of government to grant an interview to the JDD under its new leadership.

The edition was produced mainly by freelance journalists and "volunteers".

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the strike was the longest in French media history since a 28-month stoppage by staff at Le Parisien daily that began in 1975.

Lejeune, 34, was until recently editor of far-right weekly Valeurs Actuelles, which in 2021 was found guilty of racist hate speech.

He endorsed provocative far-right media commentator Eric Zemmour during the latter's campaign to become president last year.

The Lagardere Group -- which owns the JDD, Paris Match magazine and Europe 1 radio -- is being taken over by French billionaire Vincent Bollore, who is reported to hold ultra-conservative views.

Bollore, a conservative Catholic, has been expanding his empire to take in TV channels and now print media.

The JDD, which has weekly sales of around 140,000, has in recent years toed a centrist line and been seen as generally sympathetic to the government of President Emmanuel Macron.

K.Radomski--GL

Featured

Anger in Austria over business park on former Nazi camp site

A few crumbling concrete blocks in an overgrown field are all that remains visible of what was once a sprawling Nazi forced labour complex around the Austrian town of Leobersdorf.

Tanker pays record $5.3 mn to transit Panama Canal: administrator

A tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas has paid $5.3 million for priority passage through the Panama Canal ahead of El Nino-related restrictions, the waterway's deputy administrator, Ilya Espino de Marotta, told AFP on Thursday.

China's help critical, but unlikely, for US to choke off Iran

The United States has threatened the "economic asphyxiation" of Iran, but analysts say that a successful chokehold would require unlikely cooperation from China.

US court rules Pentagon ban of Anthropic unlawful

A US federal judge ruled Thursday that sanctions imposed in February by the Trump administration against AI giant Anthropic were illegal, finding that the government had punished the artificial intelligence company for publicly criticizing the Pentagon.