In the News: the government confident about the conditions for returning to class in France

Audio 05:01

By: Norbert Navarro

Publicity

It is on the front page of the newspaper Le Figaro that he says it: the Minister of National Education assures that "  the majority of schools will reopen everywhere  " in France. In an interview he gave to this daily, Jean-Michel Blanquer adds to his optimistic forecast "  the majority of colleges in the green zone  ", with reference to the classification of the departments by colors, currently green, orange or red, to result in a final two-color classification, green or red, which will result in different final deconfinement methods.

In this interview at Le Figaro , Jean-Michel Blanquer also repeats the government's "  priority  ": "  primary school  ". And according to the minister, the classes of this school, which is that of the very beginning of schooling, from the preparatory course for the youngest students, "  will be able to reopen very quickly  ", because they are "  of twelve students  ", says Jean -Michel Blanquer at Le Figaro , that is, according to him, "  300,000 children  ".

As we can see, as practically everywhere in the world, the coronavirus crisis is obviously still on the front page in France. That of the daily Liberation plus most of its daily edition is now entrusted to the good care of the service "  Check News  " of this newspaper, that is to say, in French in the text, to the verification service informations. In Libé , today, sixteen questions are asked about the beginning of the coming deconfinement in France. To unravel the true from the false.

Too much false information is circulating about this coronavirus crisis, and the government, of course, is annoyed. But from there to the news police, there is a step, which he took, causing an uproar in the French press :

For the past two weeks, the government website has posted articles published by the media with specialized services for verifying information.

Protests from the press, therefore, you said, like those from Liberation . Which newspaper denounces the government's "  faux pas de com  ", the executive being accused of re-establishing an "information  ministry  " and of wanting to "  certify  " the "  truth  ". An approach that Libé brings closer to the 1984 novel by George Orwell!

Because this government initiative poses three problems, Liberation estimates  : first, the management of the newspapers concerned were "  not informed  "; secondly, the articles cited on the government site come from newspapers which include a dedicated  fact-checking service  , which has the effect of "  eliminating  " others; thirdly, this initiative "  could lead the public to believe that the government is establishing itself as a judge (…) and affixing an official stamp  ". Only here, objected Libé , "  government communication is one thing, the work of editorial offices is another  ".

This daily newspaper therefore wishes to clarify that this initiative "  does not cover any form whatsoever of partnership between Liberation and government communication services  ". And Liberation intends the government site to warn "  very clearly its readers that this list of links, which is similar to a press review, does not in any way engage the titles concerned  ". And it is of course not the press review of Rfi that will say the opposite.

And no more Le Figaro , when this newspaper points to "  one more failure  " in government communication, "  the weak link, according to this daily, of crisis management  ", Le Figaro estimating that at the top of the state, "  we seem ready to succumb to the temptation of the ORTF  ”, named after this state office which ruled radio and television in the blessed time of oil lamps, the charm of the crews and General de Gaulle.

Controversy, therefore, between the media and the French government, but which are of little importance in view of the tensions between China and the United States, American President Donald Trump having repeatedly stated that he has proof that the coronavirus comes from a Wuhan laboratory :

And this nervous breakdown is far from subsiding since this morning, in the daily Le Parisien , the Chinese ambassador to France replied bluntly to Donald Trump. "  If he has evidence, let him show it!" But let him stop fooling people with powdered detergents  ”, the diplomat's lumberjack very little diplomatically. For Ambassador Lu Shaye, "  no question of virus leakage  ". China "  has neither the will nor the capacity to create this kind of coronavirus,  " he said to the Parisian . Nevertheless, Donald Trump, merchant of "  detergents  ", this is what could be called diplomacy of the coronavirus. 

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• Coronavirus
• Edouard Philippe
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