Paris (AFP)
The National Union of Journalists (SNJ) filed an appeal with the Council of State on Monday for the government to remove from its site the page "Desinfox Coronavirus" which it created to fight against the "proliferation" of "false information" on the health crisis, he announced on Twitter.
In his interim release (emergency appeal), which AFP was able to consult, the SNJ asked the judge to order the Prime Minister to delete this page "in order to immediately put an end to the serious and manifestly illegal attack on the principles pluralism in the expression of opinions and the neutrality of public authorities ".
This new section of the government.fr site, which lists links to articles "from French media fighting, in the context of the health crisis, against disinformation", was put online at the end of April. These media are Franceinfo, Liberation, 20 Minutes, Le Monde and Agence France-Presse.
But this initiative immediately sparked controversy.
"Since the start of the Covid-19 health crisis, the government has been working to ensure that all of our fellow citizens have access to the most reliable information possible, in real time," government spokesperson said on Saturday. , Sibeth Ndiaye.
"We are witnessing a proliferation, which I will describe as unheard of, of false information, (...) and which can lead to serious health consequences", she added, adding that the page was "intended to be deleted once the crisis is over ".
In a text published on Sunday, around thirty journalists 'and writers' societies denounced the operation in chorus, saying that "the State is not the arbiter of information" and that it "gives the impression, in a mixture of harmful genres, of labeling the production of certain media ".
In its appeal, the SNJ denounces a "manifest interference of the public authorities in the freedom of press", fearing in particular that this initiative introduces "in the reader's mind suspicion as for the relations between the press and the political world".
© 2020 AFP