Investigating Le Monde
By Rachel Alembakis Posted Oct 1 2003
In the journalistic equivalent of the storming of the Bastille, two investigative reporters have published an attack on the venerable French newspaperLe Monde, which has be-come embroiled in a scandal involving accusations of influence peddling, stories and investigations prompted by the personal agendas of the newspaper's editorial directors, and the “theft” of the spiritual soul of the newspaper.
Since it was published in February, The Hidden Face of Le Monde (La Face Cachée du Monde), written by Philippe Cohen, head of the economic section of the weekly news-magazine Marianne, and Pierre Péan, one of the country's most famous investigative reporters, has sparked charges and countercharges between the authors and the newspa-per. Le Monde is suing for defamation and has claimed that the charges are false. Cohen and Péan have defended their position.
“For about 10 years, we have been shocked and disagreeably surprised by the journal's evolution,” Cohen said. “Equally, we have guessed at and questioned the coverage of a certain number of events that seemed partisan or refer to some opaque choices. We didn't understand why Le Monde took these positions.”
The authors each individually began researching the book two years ago and were per-suaded to join forces by Claude Durand, their editor on the book. Cohen and Péan claim that the directors of Le Monde have betrayed the spirit of the paper's founder, Hubert Beuve-Mery. Indeed, they say that they are motivated by a sense of shock and betrayal over practices at the publication that has been a mainstay of their daily routine for most of their lives.
“We are old readers of Le Monde,” they say in the 631-page book. “The newspaper has accompanied our civic and political education since the 1950s for one of us, the 1960s for the other. As it has for so many French, this paper had become ours. Our daily prayer, as the philosopher Hegel said.”
Charges Against Le Monde
The authors' charges were against Jean-Marie Colombiani, editor-in-chief and director of the newspaper; Edwy Plenel, executive director; and Alain Minc, the chair of the paper's supervisory board. They charged that that the paper's directors used the paper to “tarnish” and “trample on” their adversaries with investigative stories and campaigns while pro-tecting the reputations of their sources. Cohen cited a series of stories in Le Monde, which were released as former president Francois Mitterand was dying of cancer in 1996, that linked Mitterand to the World War II, Nazi-sympathetic Vichy regime. Publishing articles such as these was unheard of with previous presidents, and the goal, Cohen said, was to cast aspersions on the president.
“The choice to do, for example, an article, very detailed, on the physical troubles of the president, who had only a few weeks until his death, seemed suspicious to us. We sensed a very, very strong hostility,” Cohen said.
In one instance, Le Monde ran a review of a biography of President Mitterand. Although the review included information from the book about Mitterand's troubled past and his role as a Vichy collaborator, it failed to mention that the book also said that he evolved past his role as a Vichy collaborator and that, from 1942, he was in the Resistance and was courageous, Cohen said.
Cohen and Péan also charged that the directors inflated the paper's circulation numbers and disguised the paper's financial standing while simultaneously attacking business people who engage in financial malfeasance. The authors added that the directors abused their power to obtain“advantages that permit them to put their accounts in a better posi-tion.” These allegations center on several incidents, such as negotiations in 1994 over the launch of a free daily newspaper, 20 Minutes. While the Norwegian owners of the paper were negotiating a partnership for funding and printing with several newspapers, includ-ing Le Monde, the editors wrote a blistering editorial against the launch of 20 Minutes, saying that free media would distort news coverage. The implication was that the edito-rial staff was being used to drive a better bargain for Le Monde.
The book also reports that the trio turned a previously democratic system, where journal-ists had elected the editors and other important posts, into an autocracy. Specifically, it changed from an open vote on all proposed candidates to limiting journalists' votes to a predetermined slate of candidates selected by the directors.
“We were very shocked by the judicial reaction of Le Monde,” Cohen said. “They're asking for 2.6 million euros in total…”
The Controversy Explodes
Although coverage of the book and the scandal was initially quiet, it became explosive after Feb. 20 when L'Express, a weekly magazine, published excerpted extracts in ad-vance of the book's publication. “At the beginning, journalists wrote on it because it was the first time that the daily newspaper of reference had been put on trial in this way,” said Catherine Mallaval, a media journalist for the daily newspaper Libération. “But not all newspapers wrote about the book. For example, Le Figaro, which is a little right-wing, didn't write any articles on the book. In fact, it was an order from the directors because they didn't want to attack a colleague.”
As time went by, however, newspapers such as Libération stepped up their coverage and began asking questions over the way Le Monde is run because of the book's revelations and the financial situation of the newspaper, she says. Last year, Le Monde had a net deficit of 19.5 million euros (22 million USD), and this year, the paper has predicted it will be 11 million euros (12.4 million USD) in debt.
“There have been some questions posed about the newspaper of Colombiani and Plenel,” Mallaval said. “Inside the paper, for example, people are starting to ask, what's going on, is it reasonable, can we really trust them?”
Le Monde Strikes Back
At first, Le Monde only devoted a small section to denying the charges and ran a state-ment from the paper's editors saying they fully supported the directors. As time went on and more books were bought, the editors published a blistering, three-page countercharge in the newspapers on March 7. It refuted the authors' work on all levels, from minor spelling errors and mistakes in people's names (which Cohen said had been corrected in later printing editions of the book) to categorical denials of the book's assertions.
Among other refutations, the paper denied using editorials to influence the negotiations over the printing of 20 Minutes, denied manipulating its accounts to hide debt and denied turning the internal voting system into a “pre-democratic” regime run by “semi-dictators.” Furthermore, the paper gave particularly detailed explanations of its financial accountings.
Cohen dismissed the newspaper's reaction and the directors' refusal to debate the charges with the authors on television or radio.
“It's an absolutely typical reaction of a totalitarian organization,” Cohen said. “The re-fusal to see the reality.”
In April, the paper and, separately, each of the three directors sued the authors and their editor for defamation. The paper alone has sued Cohen, Péan and Durand for 1 million euros (1.13 million USD), while each of the editors has sued for a symbolic 1 euro (1.13 USD) each, plus an apology from each of the 11 newspapers, magazines and electronic media that gave coverage to the book. Additionally, the Society of Editors of Le Monde (SRM) has also sued the authors.
“We were very shocked by the judicial reaction of Le Monde,” Cohen said. “They're asking for 2.6 million euros [2.9 million USD] in total, including costs. It's exorbitant.”
Once the paper's directors filed the defamation suits, they stopped commenting to the French press about the situation, Mallaval says. Repeated messages from this writer left on the voice mail of Le Monde's press office went unreturned.
It is too early to know the long-term effect the publication of Cohen and Péan's book will have on the French journalistic establishment, Mallaval said. She noted that although it was not the first time that the paper had pursued defamation charges, it was significant that each of the claimants had sought the maximum amount of damages allowed under French law. It may take up to a year for the defamation suits to go to trial. However, in the short term, the circulation of Le Monde has only increased after the book's publica-tion and the paper's rebuttal. The book has sold around 280,000 copies up to July, ac-cording to Fayard.
“We had thought that we would sell, at maximum, between 80 and 100,000 copies be-cause we thought that it would only interest a small part of the public,” Cohen said. “But I think that to a certain extent, the reaction of Le Monde has aided us, because the refusal to debate, the violence of the reaction, gave credibility to the book.”
While Mallaval believes that some parts of the book (such as its charges of political lob-bying) are true, others are false or overstated, such as the allegations over “Enron-like” accounting. However, she took issue with Le Monde's charge that the book itself was dangerous because it was an attack on media independence and right of free speech in France.
“Colombiani has written, has said that it's very dangerous,” she said. “I don't think that at all. I think it's very good to pose the questions. I think it's normal to ask the questions.”