Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of around 400,000.
Founded by Hubert Beuve-Méry, it first appeared on November 19, 1944. Le Monde has been available on the internet since December 19, 1995. The paper's title is French for "The World". Its current board chairman and director of publication is Jean-Marie Colombani and the current chief editor (rédacteur en chef) is Edwy Plenel. It is the prinicpal publication of Groupe Le Monde.
Althrough it claims no political affiliation, Le Monde can be considered as a center-left newspaper, hostile to Chirac.
Le Monde, the newspaper, should not be confused with the periodical publication Le Monde diplomatique, of which Le Monde has 51% ownership.
The quality of reporting in Le Monde is generally considered to be high, making it a "newspaper of record". Nevertheless, in 2003, in a book entitled La face cachée du Monde ("The hidden face of Le Monde"), Pierre Péan and Philippe Cohen alleged that Colombani and Plenel had, amongst other things, shown partisan bias and engaged in financial dealings that compromised the paper's independence. These findings remain controversial.
Past Directors
- Hubert Beuve-Méry (1944-1969)
- Jacques Fauvet (1969-1982)
- André Laurens (1982-1985)
- André Fontaine (1985-1991)
- Jacques Lesourne (1991-1994)
See also
