Paris (AFP)

The government justified on Saturday the creation of the page "Desinfox Coronavirus" listing on its website press articles by the need to fight against "the proliferation" of "false information" on the health crisis.

This page "is intended to be deleted once the crisis is over," said Sibeth Ndiaye, government spokesperson, interviewed after the Council of Ministers on the controversy created by its posting on the government website. Fr.

"Since the start of the Covid-19 health crisis, the government has been working to ensure that all of our citizens have access to the most reliable information possible, in real time," she said.

However, "we are witnessing a proliferation, which I would describe as unheard of, of false information, (...) and which can lead to serious health consequences", she deplored, taking the example of false information on "supposed treatments which would make it possible to overcome the coronavirus", like "this recommendation recommending swallowing bleach to decontaminate from the inside".

To fight against disinformation, "we have set up different digital spaces on the government.fr site, which are intended to meet the legitimate expectations of our fellow citizens in search of reliable and verified information," she explained. , ensuring that "in no case do the government and the state choose press articles".

"The government site is only carrying out a form of (...) review of the whole, without choice made between the media, of all the fact-checking carried out", she detailed, specifying that "the French media highlighted have a section dedicated to fact-checking for at least two years, a specialized team and free access to content".

Among the newspapers cited, figure Liberation, whose editor Laurent Joffrin regretted, in the Saturday edition, this initiative. "Government communication is one thing, the work of the editorial staff is another. This publication without further explanation risks causing confusion in the minds of readers, especially since its promotion was done by Sibeth Ndiaye , who holds the very political post of government spokesman, "he wrote.

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