Biography

Born in Viroflay

Viroflay

Viroflay is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the south-western suburbs of Paris from the center and from the Palace of Versailles....

, Yvelines

Yvelines

Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...

, he is the brother of scientist Axel Kahn

Axel Kahn

Axel Kahn is a French scientist and geneticist. He is the brother of the journalist Jean-François Kahn. He was a member of the French National Consultative Ethics Committee from 1992 to 2004 and worked in gene therapy. He first entered the INSERM with a specialization in biochemistry...

, and son of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. Having obtained a degree in history, he started work at a postal sorting office, then at a printing works. He soon moved into journalism and was sent to cover the war in Algeria, undertaking the journalistic investigation that became known as the ‘Ben Barka affair’. Kahn then worked as a reporter for Paris-Press, L'Express

L'Express (France)

L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the US magazine TIME.-History:...

and Europe 1

Europe 1

Europe 1, formerly known as Europe n° 1, is a privately owned radio network created in 1955. It is one of the leading French radio broadcasters and heard throughout France...

. He later moved to Le Monde

Le Monde

Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

as special correspondent for North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

. In 1977, he became editor of the compilation of the ‘Nouvelles Littéraires’ and in 1983, was named editor of Matin de Paris. In 1984, he created L'Événement du Jeudi then in 1997, together with Maurice Szafran, started the weekly magazine, Marianne

Marianne (magazine)

Marianne is a weekly Paris-based French news magazine created in 1997 by Jean-François Kahn with Maurice Szafran as editorialist. The main shareholder of the company is Robert Assaraf with 49.4% of the shares .-Overview:...

, where he was the editor in chief until 2007. He often writes under the pseudonym of François Darras or Serge Maury.

Kahn has taken a clear position on many media subjects, including :

• Denouncing economical liberalism in 1995
• Denouncing the intervention of NATO in Serbia
  Serbia
  Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
  
   in 1999
• Denouncing the American intervention in Iraq
  Iraq
  Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
  
   in 2003
• He adopted a positive position on the European Constitution in 2005 but denounced the failure of the press to provide a proper platform for those who opposed it
• In 2007, he actively supported UDF candidate François Bayrou
  François Bayrou
  François Bayrou is a French centrist politician, president of Union for French Democracy since 1998 and was a candidate in the 2002 and 2007 French presidential elections. In the first round, he received 18.6% of the vote, finishing in 3rd place and therefore was eliminated from the race....
  
   for the presidency
• In 2011 he dismissed the allegations of sexual assault against Dominique Strauss-Kahn
  Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case
  New York v. Strauss-Kahn was a criminal case relating to allegations of sexual assault and attempted rape made by a hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo, against Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the Sofitel New York Hotel on May 14, 2011. The charges were dismissed at the request of the prosecution which pointed...
  
   as un troussage de domestique (literally, stripping or having casual, forced sex with a servant). He later apologised and resigned from journalism.

Partial bibliography

• “God, How They Hated Him!”. Telos 44 (Summer 1980). New York: Telos Press.
• La guerre civile, Seuil, 1982
• Et si on essayait autre chose?, Seuil, 1983
• Les Français sont formidables, Balland, 1987
• Esquisse d'une philosophie du mensonge, Flammarion, 1992
• Tout change parce que rien ne change, Fayard, 1994
• On prend les mêmes et on recommence, Grasset et Fasquelle, 1997
• Les poèmes politiques, Fayard, 1998
• Tout était faux, Fayard, 1998
• Demain la révolution, Flammarion, 1999
• Chacun son tour, Stock, 2000
• Complot contre la Démocratie, Denoël, 2000
• La pensée unique, Fayard, 2000
• Le retour de terre de Djid Andrew ; Critique de la raison capitaliste, Fayard, 2000
• Victor Hugo un révolutionnaire ; L'extraordinaire Metamorphose, Fayard 2001
• Moi, l'Autre et le loup, Fayard, 2001
• Les Rebelles, ceux et celles qui ont dit non, Plon, 2001
• Ce que Marianne en pense, éditions des Mille et une nuits, 2002
• Le camp de la guerre, Critique de la déraison impure, Fayard, 2004
• Dictionnaire incorrect, Plon, 2005
• Comme deux frères - mémoire et visions croisées (avec Axel Kahn
  Axel Kahn
  Axel Kahn is a French scientist and geneticist. He is the brother of the journalist Jean-François Kahn. He was a member of the French National Consultative Ethics Committee from 1992 to 2004 and worked in gene therapy. He first entered the INSERM with a specialization in biochemistry...
  
  ), Stock, 2006
• Les bullocrates, Fayard, 2006