Jean Daniel, founder of the Nouvel Observateur who became Obs and a great figure of the left and of journalism, died at the age of 99. Tributes multiplied Thursday, including from some who did not share all his ideas.
Read also: Death of Jean Daniel, writer and founder of Le Nouvel Observateur
Emmanuel Macron hailed Thursday the memory of the founder of the Nouvel Observateur, Jean Daniel, a "monument of journalism, scout of the left" and "a conscience", in a message posted on Twitter. “Jean Daniel was a conscience. A conscience that was awakened in Algeria with decolonization in which he participated by his writings and by his actions, at the risk of his life, " for his part greeted François Hollande.
I considered him a brother
Claude Perdriel, co-founder of "Nouvel Observateur" with Jean Daniel“He was a great journalist. He also proved to be a great editorial writer and a great editor. Jean was the guarantor of the political line but he was able to welcome all points of view, even the most radical, " confides in the columns of L'Obs Claude Perdriel who " considered him as a brother ".
At L'Obs, the editorial team wanted "to express its deep admiration, its sincere recognition and its faithful memory". The magazine, which has experienced financial difficulties like all the press in recent years, joined the fold of the Le Monde group in 2014. It has since regained financial balance, even if its circulation has eroded (215,800 copies on average in 2019).
Many political figures have paid tribute on Twitter to this friend of Albert Camus, Pierre Mendès-France, Michel Foucault and François Mitterrand, whose candidacy Le Nouvel Observateur supported in 1981.
For the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure, "it is the left which is in mourning", while the former boss of the PS Harlem Desir, greeted the one who "had first opened the doors of the Obs to SOS Racism and encouraged our battles. " Jean Daniel “embodied a journalism of ideas and convictions placing the debate above everything. Witness of the century, he accompanied by his pen the great events of the last decades ”, greeted the Minister of Culture Franck Riester.
Several French journalists also praised his memory on Twitter. "Upset: generations owe him everything, he inspired us: an example and the honor of demanding journalism", reacted Jean-Pierre Elkabbach. "By his pen, his culture, his consistency in his commitments, his physical and moral courage, he was a conscience and a model for my generation," said Anne Sinclair.
"We sometimes laughed, me first, but still, what a biography!", Also greeted Daniel Schneiderman. For Robert Ménard, former secretary general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) until 2008, now mayor of Béziers, “you can not share your ideas but recognize your talent. It marked the history of our profession ”. Alice Coffin, of the activist group La Barbe, praised his memory by telling on Twitter that he was the only business owner to have told them that he approved of their action.
