The national Union of journalists has submitted to the Council of State on Monday for an “infringement of the freedom of the press” regarding this device.
After many controversies, the government has finally decided to remove from its website the service “Désinfox coronavirus”, which identified the articles of “fact-checking” of some media about the Covid-19, announced on Tuesday the minister of Culture, Franck Riester.
This initiative (emanating from the government information Service) “was obviously not a goal of sorting papers or information,” said the minister. “For all that, I can understand the concerns that have been raised by this service in the essay,” said Franck Riester, explaining that the executive had therefore “taken the decision to remove this page from the website of the government.”
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Launched on 30 April by the State, the “Désinfox Coronavirus” was supposed to gather information, and fighting against the “spread of fake news” in this time of health crisis. “More than ever, it is necessary to rely on sources of information safe and verified. This is why the government website now offers a dedicated space”, indicated that the then government spokesman Sibeth Ndiaye in a tweet.
The problem ? The space in question only offered a selection of items that are of the World, the AFP, of franceinfo, Release or 20 Minutes, without any hierarchy or explanations.
“Infringement of the freedom of the press”
A device wrong, according to the national Union of journalists (SNJ), who said on Monday the matter before the Council of State for “undermining the freedom of the press,” against the government web page. The union states having asked the judge to enjoin the Prime minister to remove this page, and to “immediately stop the infringement, a serious and manifestly illegal scope to the principles of pluralism in the expression of opinions and neutrality of the public authorities”.
“This is not the government to be ‘the certifying body of all media’,” says the news release, recalling that this device has been the subject “of a sentence almost unanimous of the profession.”
“public Outcry”
Since its publication, this page has caused an uproar in the world press. “It goes without saying that we would have refused this type of approach”, he indicated the 1st of may last, in a tweet, the director of the publication of the World Luc Bronner.
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“For months, the Liberation, the cell survey of Radio France, Mediapart, Le Monde, and many others, publish surveys that will never be found on the official website of the government because annoying for the executive”, was added.
“These papers, posted on our various media are found to be used, exploited, on a platform that called Gouvernement.fr” abounds Vincent Giret, director of franceinfo.fr in an article in the Mondepublié a few days later.
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Disinformation, misinformation, and other “fake news”
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In a column published Sunday on the website of Marianne, more than thirty Companies, journalists and editors have even denounced “in the strongest terms” the creation of this topic. “Distinguishing between such and such an article on its website, the government gives the impression, in a mix of genres deleterious, to label the production of some of the media”, they say. “The LDS and RDS signatories of this text ask that this section of the site www.gouvernement.fr to be removed without delay”, is added.
