17 avril 2002

LES LECTEURS RABROUENT LE JOURNAL LE MONDE

LES LECTEURS RABROUENT LE JOURNAL LE MONDE

L’agence Reuters commente, pour la presse internationale, l’article de Robert
Solé, médiateur du Monde, et reprend des passages des messages cités dans
l’éditorial du 14-15 avril (édition du 13, le soir) .

Cette diffusion internationale va permettre une sensibilisation des médias
étrangers européens qui pourraient être tentés d’imiter Le Monde.

Notre action a un impact indéniable. Il faut continuer afin qu’à l’issue des
trois mois d’essai, Le Monde ne renouvelle pas cette lamentable
expérience.

TEXTE DE LA DéPêCHE REUTERS

Readers slam France’s Le Monde for news in English

PARIS, April 13 (Reuters) – Irate readers have accused the influential
Paris daily Le Monde of undermining the French language and bowing to
Americanisation by printing a weekly supplement of New York Times articles
in English.
Le Monde’s ombudsman Robert Sole wrote in the Saturday edition, the
same one containing the 12-page Times supplement, that letters to the
editor about it had been mostly negative.
This appeared to contradict a marketing survey Le Monde made last
August in which 59 percent of those questioned said they would be
interested in the supplement in English. Readers between 15 and 24 years
old were especially enthusiastic.
”This is the wrong way to be open to the world, it’s a
self-enslavement, participation in the Americanisation of France,” wrote
Albert Salon, president of the International Francophone Forum, a group
that defends the French language.
Noting that the Times was not publishing Le Monde articles in French,
another reader wrote: ”You shouldn’t be surprised that the Americans treat
us with such condescension.”
Several letters accused Le Monde of insulting the majority of its
audience that did not understand English.
”They’ll be considered fools who have no place in today’s society,”
one wrote. ”What a deplorable example for the leading French-language
newspaper to give!”
”When will you realise you’re sawing off the branch you’re sitting
on?” another reader asked. ”When will you understand that, by doing
this, you contribute to isolating and despising millions of people who do
not speak English fluently?”
One reader suggested Le Monde reprint the whole New York Times in
Paris every day ”with a four-page supplement in the indigenous language
for local (i.e. French) news.” Another asked why it did not run news in
Spanish from Madrid’s El Pais daily.
Ombudsman Sole said the three-month experiment with the Times
supplement was meant to open Le Monde readers to another way of looking at
the United States. The paper has said it will decide after the trial
period whether to continue.
Sole said Le Monde wanted to attract new readers and aimed to create a
Europe-wide advertising market with dailies in Germany, Italy and Spain it
hoped would also print the Times supplements.
This weekend’s supplement included Times articles on Israel, genetics,
paedophile U.S. priests, Antarctica and blue jeans.
20020413 141817+0000