Le Figaro

Created in the reign of Charles X in 1826, Le Figaro is the oldest French daily. It is also the best-selling national daily, with nearly 350,000 copies in circulation.

The reference paper of the liberal right wing, it is generally perceived as being close to French republicans. Le Figaro is constantly pointed at as a defender of bosses. The daily, belonging to Serge Dassault, has experienced several interior controversies. Journalists complained of being unable to deal freely with topics related to the owner (see ‘Controversies’).

Among the authors can be found some very different individuals, such as convinced Atlanticist Ivan Rioufol and sovereigntist Eric Zemmour. Along with Le Monde, Le Figaro is one of the most state-assisted papers (€16,179,637 in 2013).

A billionaire, the fifth-wealthiest in France, king of the aerospace and arms industry, Essonne Senator Serge Dassault is also a press baron. Present everywhere, scandalous everywhere. He has been implicated in a legal scandal for several years now. In particular, he’s accused of having paid for ‘Wright’ votes (influencing a preferential voting system) while serving as mayor of Corbeil-Essonnes.

As for media-related questions, he is suspected of putting pressure on his daily’s editorial in order to not to attract attention to information that could be harmful for him. In September 2013, Mediapart published a record highlighting the role of Dassault in a corruption case in Corbeil-Essonnes. While the majority of other editions were making a great deal with this case, Le Figaro was waiting a day to give the floor to senator’s advocates.

The businessman is also accommodated with controversial speeches. A convinced pro-liberal, he maintains that "Chineese sleep inside their factories, produce cheaply and in big quantities and that is good." Or that it is "abnormal" to help jobless, these "people are reluctant to work."

Author of a ‘word pad’ section, updated every Friday since 2002, Ivan Rioufol made almost his whole career within Le Figaro editorials. Self-declared conservative or even "neo-reactionist", advocate of American intervention in Iraq in 2003, he has supported George W. Bush’s position on numerous occasions. Rioufol is also a senior fellow at the Atlantis Institute. This European think tank is of Atlantic inspiration, as its name indicates. Its members consider that Western democracy is the universal template and should be promoted internationally.
The organization is presided over by Joël Rubinfeld, a member of the European Jewish Parliament.

The journalist often advocates for Israel. In an article dating back to 2008, he accused the French media of being complacent with the Jewish state’s enemies. Rioufol was also enthusiastic concerning the French intervention in Libya. He wrote at that time: "Nicolas Sarkozy’s name is being praised in Libya. 
The political change is considerable. France did not repeat the US mistakes of Iraq campaign. A despot fell."

Last June, the editorial boss of the daily, Alexis Brézet, had to justify himself in front of the Journalistic Society (SDJ) of the newspaper, worried about the way in which some delicate topics concerning the daily’s chief, Dassault, were approached. For instance, Qatar, Dassault Aviation’s client. The SDJ claimed numerous journalists had argued that "they had been asked to be very prudent as for Qatar and FIFA-related topics."

Alexis Brézet gave a somewhat surprising answer: "There is no article about Qatar that we cannot afford to publish. As proof, this morning (June 1) [Front National politician Florian] Philippot was accused of libel by Qatar." Even as he hurried up to make up for this, claiming it was not a good example, the boss nevertheless admitted what everyone knew already: "All newspapers which belong to industrialists [the majority of French media outlets, Ed.] are facing this problem. We have to be particularly rigorous, and understand that there is an element of over interpretation within articles which we write and which are related to countries which our shareholder has interests in."

In May 2013, the International Institute for Peace, Justice and Human Rights (IIPJHR), an NGO based in Geneva, Switzerland, wrote a virulent communiqué destined for Le Figaro. The reason? The daily would have been ‘firmly’ opposed to the distribution of an announcement. It was encouraging the parents of youngsters who had left to struggle in Syria to contact the NGO in order to help them to find their children. At that time the daily rejected the request, arguing that the refusal was related to "recent events" — an excuse that surprised IIPJHR. "We can hardly understand how recent events can prevent from publishing our announcement. On the contrary, intensification in fighting, acts of violence by the rebels, terror, mass executions, decapitations, ethnical-religious purifications — should be even a bigger motivation to protect our youngsters from a warfare, where the innocence is the first victim of all," postulated the organization in a communiqué. It qualified Le Figaro’s decision as a "censorship act with heavy consequences" as an "inhuman act" and "non-assistance to people in danger."