The text received the support of the chairman of the Culture Commission Laurent Lafon (centrist).

Its single article aims to complete the law of July 29, 1881 on the freedom of the press, by adding that "a publication can only be prohibited in application of a judicial decision rendered contradictorily".

"We cannot leave the situation as it is and not protect the press more," Lafon told AFP on Tuesday.

The order of the Paris court, issued urgently on Friday November 18, "calls into question one of the fundamental freedoms, the freedom of the press", he believes.

"We are at the level of principles," added Ms. Goulet.

According to the senator, a lawyer by profession, the order on request is a "classic, urgent" procedure, but used "in a totally unprecedented way in the press".

"It's the non-contradictory aspect that smashes the law of the press (...) it amounts to censoring a priori," she said.

"It was important to react quickly and to express our support to the press," added Mr. Lafon.

For its part, the group CRCE with a communist majority estimated in a press release that "the contradictory and the right to a fair trial were not respected with regard to Médiapart".

"Every bit of this decision clearly goes against fundamental rights and opens the way to a new condemnation of France by the European Court of Human Rights", according to the group.

"Without judging the merits which belongs to justice, the decision (...) fundamentally raises questions", reacted in a joint press release the deputies of Nupes.

"In a democracy and a proper rule of law, it is incomprehensible that pre-publication and non-adversarial censorship procedures can be used against the press," they said.

The investigative media had denounced Monday an "unprecedented prior censorship".

"Mediapart was not informed of this procedure and the order was taken by a judge without our newspaper being able to defend its work and its rights", indicated the director of the publication Edwy Plenel.

The ordinance injunction not to publish "new revelations on the political practices of the mayor of Saint-Étienne, based in particular on the same recordings which allowed us to reveal the scandal of blackmail to the sextape of which his first deputy was the victim centrist Gilles Artigues", said Mr. Plenel.

© 2022 AFP