The Society of Editors (SDR) of the French weekly Marianne was indignant once morest a change of front page at the last minute. The SDR denounces a “interference” of a shareholder. A version denied this Wednesday, April 20 by the editorial director, Natacha Polony.
The society of editors denounces a “unprecedented attack on its independence”. She claims that the weekly’s main shareholder, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, intervened to change the front page of last Thursday’s issue.
On the first version of the front page were the looks of Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. It was noted “Anger…” under the eyes of the first, “…or chaos?” under those of the second. The phrase eventually became “Despite the anger… avoid chaos.”
According to the Society of Editors of Marianne“the initial content of what was to appear on this front page had been established following two collegial meetings involving the management and the entire editorial staff. […] A clear consensus had emerged to draw a factual distinction between the two candidates without dictating their conduct to our readers”, estimate the SDR.
The management of the newspaper was obliged to react publicly. In a letter posted on Twitter, the director, Natacha Polony, believes that the title of the final version “translates the journalistic reading that we make of the political situation in France, developed in the editorial of the newspaper.
“However, I decided to listen to all the sensibilities making up the editorial team, while being attentive to the wishes of the CMI group [appartenant à Daniel Kretinsky] to leave no ambiguity as to the position of our weekly”, says Natacha Polony.
The media L’OBS recalls that the Czech billionaire, Daniel Kretinsky, entered the capital of major French media from 2018, and controls the weekly Marianne through CMI France, a subsidiary of Czech Media Invest (CMI). The man did not wish to react.
