Libération

Libération has been a reference daily of the French left-wing for a long time. It was created in 1973 and was inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre. Nowadays the paper is suffering some major difficulties. It’s lost a large number of readers and circulation has fallen below 130,000 copies.

It should be noted that Libération has gradually passed from a clearly left-wing editorial line to something journalist Serge July calls a "liberal-libertarian" way of thinking.

A pro-feminist, minority- and LGBT-defending outlet, Libération is constantly accused of being a temple of "right-thinking" and naivety. Highly antagonistic towards Russia (see ‘Controversies’), the paper is also a sworn opponent of the "fachosphère" — extreme-right on the web — and the "conspirationism".

The daily belongs to French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, who has several outlets in his possession. Libération also benefits from some important state assistance, expressed by subsidies to the media (some €10 million in 2013).

An Israeli and French passport holder, businessman Patrick Drahi is a controversial person. Some will recall his wish to give up his French citizenship. But he’s better known as Altice group’s chairman. Initially the businessman has made his fortune with telcos, particularly with SFR group. But for some years on now, he has been rolling with everything in the press sphere.

He currently has stakes in the following media outlets: Libération, L’Express, Stratégies, ITV News, Studio Ciné Live, L’Expansion, Electroniques, Point Banque, Mieux vivre votre argent etc...

Recently Drahi grabbed Next Radio TV group. This controls the first French news channel, BFM TV and a successful radio station, RMC. The situation caused some experts to sound the alarm bell, concerning the excessive control the Israeli-French businessman possesses over the French media.

Chairman at Libération editorials since June 2014, Laurent Joffrin has made himself a lot of enemies. A long-time member of Socialist Party, he worked with Lionel Jospin and Bertrand Delanoë in his youth, and is now a sworn opponent of what he calls the "fachosphère" — extreme-right on the web.

With him in chief editor’s role, the paper takes a clearly pro-Western approach towards the Ukrainian conflict. He qualifies all who do not think in a same way as the establishment, as "conspirationists". "More than 100 answers to my 9/11-related paper. No factual refutation. Total defeat of conspirationist’s camp," he argued after having published a 9/11-related article. He stands for the united Europe and has remained in memories as he was trying to get a "yes" at the EU Constitution referendum in 2005.

At that time he officiated to Nouvel Observateur and argued: "This Constitution is a lesser evil. It is better to vote for a lesser evil, than for an evil".

In 2005, Liberation gave support to the ‘YES’ vote at the EU Constitution referendum. At the time, the daily which later became defunct (some 94,000 copies sold in 2014) enthusiastically related the speeches of pro-European French politicians like Julien Dray. This could have resulted in a fiasco as far as the French nation was concerned, thought it went on to reject Brussels’ proposal in 2005. Serge July’s editorial, published the following day after the vote, remains one of the most cruel media offensives against a democratically-achieved result.

Last year, during the Ukrainian crisis, the daily was wildly opposed to Russian foreign policy, up to the point to show itself completely biased through a survey about Putin’s relationships in France. Investigation efforts of the editorial are considered as non-independent by a number of observers, and have already been dismantled by some intellectuals, such as economist Jacques Sapir.