Le Monde diplomatique is a monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first created mainly for a diplomatic audience as its name implies. It had a
non-alignedThe Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2011, the movement had 120 members and 17 observer countries...
,
Third-worldistThird-worldism is a tendency within left-wing political thought to regard the division between developed countries, and developing countries or "Third World" nations against the background of primary political importance...
viewpoint throughout the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, and practices nowadays
advocacy journalismAdvocacy journalism is a genre of journalism that intentionally and transparently adopts a non-objective viewpoint, usually for some social or political purpose. Because it is intended to be factual, it is distinguished from propaganda...
in taking an editorial stance based on
alter-globalizationAlter-globalization is the name of a social movement that supports global cooperation and interaction, but which opposes the negative effects of economic globalization, feeling that it often works to the detriment of, or does not...
.
The publication is owned by Le Monde diplomatique
SAS.A. designates a particular type of corporation in various countries, mostly those employing the civil law. It originated in Spain during the 16th century. Depending on language, the abbreviation stands for various phrases meaning anonymous society, anonymous company, anonymous partnership, or...
, a subsidiary company of
Le MondeLe 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...
which grants its complete editorial autonomy from it. Worldwide there were seventy-one editions in twenty-six other languages (including thirty-eight in print for a total of about 2.2 million copies and thirty-three electronic editions).
As of March 2008, the paper is headed by
Serge HalimiSerge Halimi is a journalist with the Le Monde diplomatique since 1992. In March 2008 he became the editorial director. He is also the author of Le Grand Bond en Arrière.-Biography:...
.
1954-1989
Le Monde diplomatique was founded in 1954 by
Hubert Beuve-MéryHubert Beuve-Méry founded Le Monde in 1944 at the behest of Charles de Gaulle. Following the liberation of France Beuve-Méry built Le Monde from the ruins of Le Temps using its offices, printing presses, masthead and those staff members who had not collaborated with the Germans.He retired his...
, founder and director of
Le MondeLe 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...
, the French
newspaper of recordNewspaper of record is a term that may refer either to any publicly available newspaper that has been authorized by a government to publish public or legal notices , or any major newspaper that has a large circulation and whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered professional and...
. Subtitled the "organ of diplomatic circles and of large international organisations," 5,000 copies were distributed, comprising eight pages, dedicated to
foreign policyA country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
and
geopoliticsGeopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
. Its first
editor in chiefAn editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
, François Honti, made the newspaper into a scholarly reference journal. Honti attentively followed the birth of the
Non-Aligned MovementThe Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2011, the movement had 120 members and 17 observer countries...
, created out of the 1955
Bandung ConferenceThe first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference—also known as the Bandung Conference—was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on April 18–24, 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia...
, and the issues of the "
Third WorldThe term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
".
Claude JulienClaude Julien was a French journalist, editor of French newspaper of record Le Monde in 1969 and editor-in-chief then director of Le Monde diplomatique....
became the newspaper's second editor in January 1973.
At that time, the circulation of
Le Monde diplomatique had jumped from 5,000 to 50,000 copies, and would reach, with Micheline Paulet, 120,000 in less than twenty years. Without renouncing its "
Third-worldismThird-worldism is a tendency within left-wing political thought to regard the division between developed countries, and developing countries or "Third World" nations against the background of primary political importance...
" position, it extended the treatment of its subjects, concentrating on international economic and monetary problems, strategic relations, the Middle-East conflict, etc.
Le Monde diplomatique took an independent stance, criticizing the
neoliberalNeoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
ideology and policies of the 1980s, represented by
Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
and
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
.
Post Cold War
After the November, 1989 Fall of the
Berlin WallThe Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
and the 1990-1991
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, the newspaper made an important turn, and criticized the "American crusade".
Ignacio RamonetIgnacio Ramonet is a Spanish journalist and writer.He was the editor-in-chief of Le Monde diplomatique from 1991 until March 2008....
was elected director in January 1991.
Le Monde diplomatique analyzed the post-
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
world, paying specific attention to "ethnic" conflicts – the
wars in former YugoslaviaThe Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
, the 1994
Rwandan GenocideThe Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
, the conflicts in the
CaucasusThe Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, etc. – as well as to the new
information technologyInformation technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
.
After having published a famous editorial in January 1995 where Ramonet coined the term "pensée unique" ("single thought") to describe the supremacy of the neoliberal
ideologyAn ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
, the newspaper supported the November–December
1995 general strikeThe 1995 strikes in France were a series of general strikes in France, mostly in the public sector in late 1995. The strikes received great popular support despite paralyzing the country's transportation infrastructure...
in France against Prime minister
Alain JuppéAlain Marie Juppé is a French politician currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He also served as Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac and the Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs from 2010 to 2011...
's (
RPRThe Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
) plan to cut pensions.
Three years later, after a proposal in a 1997 editorial by Ignacio Ramonet,
Le Monde diplomatique took a founding role in the creation of ATTAC, an
alter-globalizationAlter-globalization is the name of a social movement that supports global cooperation and interaction, but which opposes the negative effects of economic globalization, feeling that it often works to the detriment of, or does not...
NGOA non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
, which was originally founded for advocacy of the
Tobin taxA Tobin tax, suggested by Nobel Laureate economist James Tobin, was originally defined as a tax on all spot conversions of one currency into another...
, and which has since spread throughout the world. It now supports a variety of left-wing causes. The newspaper also took an important role in the organisation of the 2001
Porto AlegrePorto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
World Social ForumThe World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization...
.
After the
Second Gulf War starting in 2003 under the
George W. Bush administrationThe presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
,
Le Monde diplomatique continues its position of criticizing the US policy of "violent intervention" in the Middle East and the neoconservative' project to "reshape" the so-called "
Greater Middle EastThe Greater Middle East is a political term coined by the Bush administration to group together together various countries, pertaining to the Muslim world, specifically Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Various Central Asian countries are sometimes also included. Some speakers may use the...
" region.
Le Monde diplomatique SA
André FontaineAndré Fontaine is a French historian and journalist . He started working at Temps Présent, and then at Le Monde in 1947, at the official beginning of the Cold War. He became the newspaper's editor from 1969 to 1985, and director from 1985 to 1991. As of February 2007 he was still contributing...
, the director of
Le Monde, signed a 1989 convention with Claude Julien which guaranteed the monthly's autonomy. But it gained complete statutory, economic and financial independence in 1996 with the creation of
Le Monde diplomatique SA. With a donation from Günter Holzmann, a German antifascist exiled before
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to Bolivia, the monthly's employees acquired approximately one-quarter of the
capitalIn economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
, while
Les Amis du Monde diplomatique, a 1901 Law association of readers, bought another quarter.
Thus, since the end of 2000, the newspaper's employees and readers retain 49% of
Le Monde diplomatique SAs capital, largely above the control stock necessary to control the direction and editorial line of the Monde diplo
. The remaining 51% is owned by Le Monde
.
Criticism
Jean-Marie ColombaniJean-Marie Colombani is a French journalist, and was the editor of the daily newspaper Le Monde from 1994 until 2007.-Biography:...
, former editor of the daily Le Monde
, was attributed by Le Monde diplomatiques former director general
Bernard CassenBernard Cassen is a founder of ATTAC and director general of Le Monde diplomatique newspaper, from 1973 to January 2008.-References:**...
as saying: "
Le Monde diplomatique is a journal of opinion;
Le Monde is a journal of opinions."
9/11 conspiracy theories
The
NorwegianNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
version of the July 2006
Le Monde diplomatique sparked interest when the editors ran, on their own initiative, a three page main story on the
September 11, 2001 attacksThe September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
and summarized the various types of
9/11 conspiracy theories9/11 conspiracy theories are theories that disagree with the widely accepted account that the September 11 attacks were perpetrated solely by al-Qaeda. These theories arose because of what proponents of the conspiracy theories believe to be inconsistencies in the official conclusions or some...
(which were not specifically endorsed by the newspaper, only reviewed).
The
Voltaire NetworkThe Réseau Voltaire is an international non-profit organisation, based in Paris. It stated aim is the promotion of freedom and secularism , that is separation of church and state, faith and politics...
, which has somehow changed position since the September 11 attacks and whose director,
Thierry MeyssanThierry Meyssan is a French journalist and political activist.He is the author of investigations into the extreme right wing , as well as into the Catholic Church Thierry Meyssan (born 18 May 1957 in Talence, Gironde) is a French journalist and political activist.He is the author of investigations...
, became a leading proponent of 9/11 conspiracy theory, explained that although the Norwegian version of
Le Monde diplomatique had allowed it to translate and publish this article on its website, the mother-house, in France, categorically refused it this right, thus displaying an open debate between various national editions.
In December 2006, the French version published an article by
Alexander CockburnAlexander Claud Cockburn is an American political journalist. Cockburn was brought up in Ireland but has lived and worked in the United States since 1972. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair, he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch...
, co-editor of
CounterPunchCounterpunch can refer to:* Counterpunch , a punch in boxing* CounterPunch, a bi-weekly political newsletter* Counterpunch , a type of punch used in traditional typography* Punch-Counterpunch, a Transformers character...
, which strongly criticized the endorsement of conspiracy theories by the US left-wing, alleging that it was a sign of "theoretical emptiness." The Norwegian
Le Monde diplomatique, did again however mark its difference from the mother edition by allowing
David Ray GriffinDavid Ray Griffin is a retired American professor of philosophy of religion and theology. Along with John B. Cobb, Jr., he founded the Center for Process Studies in 1973, a research center of Claremont School of Theology which seeks to promote the common good by means of the relational approach...
's response to Cockburn to be published in their March 2007 issue.
Advertising
Although
Le Monde diplomatique publishes few
advertisementsAdvertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
in order to retain its editorial independence, it has sometimes been criticized for the quantity and nature of the published advertisements . In November and December 2003, two-page advertisements by
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and a car manufacturer were placed. The issues of February and March 2004 contained
advertisementsAdvertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
by
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
in a "social" atmosphere with a picture of children, which led to agitation.
Rerouting of Air France 438
An
Air FranceAir France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
passenger jet flying directly from
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to
Mexico CityMexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
on 18 April 2009 was not allowed to fly over
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
territory and was rerouted to the
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
island of
MartiniqueMartinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
. The flight crew was informed that U.S. authorities did not allow
Hernando Calvo Ospina Hernando Calvo Ospina is a Colombian journalist and writer. He lives in France.-Life and work:On September 1985 while he was studying journalism at the Central University of Quito, Ecuador, Hernando Calvo Ospina, was detained and "disappeared"...
, a
ColombiaColombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n journalist traveling on an assignment for
Le Monde diplomatique, to fly over U.S. airspace. The
No Fly ListThe No Fly List is a list, created and maintained by the United States government's Terrorist Screening Center , of people who are not permitted to board a commercial aircraft for travel in or out of the United States. The list has also been used to divert away from U.S. airspace aircraft not...
maintained by the U.S. government does not allow people on it to even cross U.S. airspace.
In Mexico City, Calvo Ospina was briefly detained and questioned. He then proceeded to
NicaraguaNicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
for his assignment. A possible reason for the rerouting is Calvo Ospina's journalism, sharply critical of U.S. foreign policy. According to the flight crew, the rerouting was without precedent for Air France.
External links