Sarkozy's tight circle of media friends

A bid by one of French President Sarkozy's best friends to take over a prominent newspaper has journalists pushing for regulations to protect their independence.

By Susan Sachs | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the July 26, 2007 edition

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Paris - Even under the hot lights of the French media's scrutiny, it sometimes seems that President Nicolas Sarkozy gets by with a little help from his friends.

The concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few well-connected industrialists has been building for years. But the circles of influence, wealth, and political power have converged to an unusual degree in Mr. Sarkozy's France. This month, the country's richest man, who was also the best man at the president's wedding 11 years ago, is negotiating to buy France's leading financial newspaper, Les Échos.

Some of the conservative new president's closest pals already own the country's largest national newspapers and television stations – a cozy relationship that many journalists consider a threat to their independence.

Photos embarrassing to Sarkozy have been suppressed, and unflattering articles pulled before publication. Sarkozy has denied meddling, but whether they were prompted by direct interference from above or self-censorship on the part of overly cautious editors, the incidents have set off newsroom protests.

Yet many journalists have turned to Sarkozy to safeguard their freedoms to write and report what they want. Journalists see their demands for legal regulations on influence-peddling in the media as a test for their new president's commitment to journalistic integrity.

"Rarely in the course of the last decades has the media risked becoming so much the instrument of a single mind-set, and yet at the same time so scorned by people in power," says a coalition of six French journalist unions in a statement published last week.

Politicians have always sought to control the news, says François Malye, the coalition president and an investigative reporter for Le Point magazine. "But we're talking about the guarantees under European law for press freedom," he adds. "So we're addressing ourselves to the person responsible in France for respecting this law."

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