A major blow for France-Soir. On Monday, July 1, the former newspaper lost the approval issued by the Joint Commission for Publications and Press Agencies (CPPAP) to press titles and services. The CPPAP, an institution chaired by a member of the Council of State and made up of media representatives, considers that the company is not able to meet the necessary conditions, particularly ethical conditions, to obtain the status of a press company.
Founded in 1944, a former information heavyweight in France, what is now just a website is now accused of being one of the main relays of disinformation in the country. The CPPAP believes in particular that France-Soir “presents in a favorable light therapeutic and preventive behaviors that are likely to divert patients from therapies that comply with the current state of scientific knowledge.” Which the company disputes.
“This is an important, courageous decision, but necessary to ensure that the ethics of press titles are respected,” says Anne-Claire Marquet, general director of the Independent Online Information Press Union (SPIIL), who sits on the CPPAP commission. In fact, the site will no longer be able to claim press aid, and especially, tax-free donations authorized under the title of support for pluralism of information.
France Evening denounces for its part a crusade against it: “Faced with this new attempt by the CPPAP to undermine the pluralism of opinions and more particularly in what appears to be harassment against our media, France Evening has decided to appeal this decision to defend freedom of the press and freedom of expression,” it is written on the site, in a press release published on July 1, 2024.
Led by Xavier Azalbert since 2016, the former media outlet lost all its journalists and began to systematically espouse numerous counterfactual theories, from the “false pandemic” of Covid-19 to the “fraud” that would be responsible for Donald Trump’s defeat in the American elections. In 2021, France soir published an article designating several French scientists as responsible for the health crisis, and ending with: “The widow [NDLR : le surnom de la guillotine] “is getting impatient”. An article understood as a call for beheading by many scientists, signatories of a column in The Express.
500,000 euros in a few months
Expelled from Google News, YouTube and their advertising networks since then, deserted by historical advertisers, the site relied until today largely on tax-deductible donations. From December 2020 to September 2021 alone, the site had collected more than 500,000 euros – an amount revealed by an investigation by The Express published last May.
With each trial against it, the company took advantage of the controversy it sparked to call on the generosity of its readers. As in June, when the company took advantage of questions about its accreditation to ask for new donations. According to an order from the Paris administrative court of January 2023, also revealed by L’Express, France-Soir would be 92% financed by donations. The decision of the joint committee for publications and press agencies could therefore seriously affect the operation of the site.
The CPPAP’s decision is the culmination of a legal battle lasting more than a year and a half. In November 2022, France-Soir’s approval was withdrawn for the first time. The commission noted the absence of the “character of general interest with regard to the dissemination of thought”, one of the criteria necessary to obtain the status. But on January 13, 2023, following the company’s appeal, the Paris administrative court suspended the execution of the decision, due to a procedural defect. Referred to by the then Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, the Council of State finally asked the commission in March 2024 to re-examine France-Soir’s case. A re-examination that was not more favorable.
Other proceedings are underway against the founder of France-Soir. Last May, videographer Thomas Durand, founder of the YouTube channel “La tronche en courbe” filed a complaint for cyberbullying against Xavier Azalbert, who is very influential on social networks and followed by more than 60,000 people on Twitter. In early June, the same Xavier Azalbert was dismissed from his defamation proceedings against emergency physician Mathias Wargon, who had only criticized the provocations relayed by the site against the scientific community, according to the courts.