Its posting had sparked outcry on the editorial side. A quick tour and then goes away: the “disinfox coronavirus” section, which listed fact-checking articles on the Covid-19, from selected media, will be deleted from the government site. It was the Minister of Culture, Franck Riester, who announced it on Tuesday.
The initiative, which came from the Government Information Service (GIS), "obviously did not represent an objective of sorting articles or information, however I can understand the concerns that have been raised by this service in newsrooms, "said the minister, adding that the executive had therefore" made the decision to remove this page from the government site ". At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the page was still available.
It was a tweet from government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye who highlighted this section of the government website. “The Covid-19 crisis promotes the spread of fake news. More than ever, it is necessary to trust reliable and verified sources of information. This is why the government site now offers a dedicated space, ”she wrote on April 30.
The # COVID19 crisis promotes the spread of #fakenews. More than ever, it is necessary to trust reliable and verified sources of information. This is why the @gouvernementFR site now offers a dedicated space. https://t.co/ZY8ddU8234
- Sibeth Ndiaye (@SibethNdiaye) April 30, 2020Dozens of articles from AFP, Europe 1, Le Monde, Liberation or even 20 Minutes, were listed on this page proposing to "learn about disinformation". "It is as if, for the government, only five Parisian media are doing their job properly," denounced Emmanuel Poupard, first secretary general of the National Union of Journalists (SNJ).
“What contempt for the 35,000 journalists, including those from the regional press. And this, while everyone is working a lot at the moment and in difficult conditions, "he continued, the union believing that" the government is not in its role, it does not have to arbitrate in matters of ethics ".
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PODCAST. Sibeth Ndiaye, the good soldier of the macronie
"The State is not the arbiter of information", had denounced thirty companies of journalists, including that of the Parisian - Today in France, in a forum published last Sunday.