COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 08/10/2019
Jon Allsop
IN RECENT MONTHS, a shareholder battle has roiled Le Monde, which is effectively France’s paper of record. In October 2018, staff and readers, representatives of whom own 25 percent of its parent company, lashed out after one of Le Monde’s shareholders furtively sold a chunk of his stake to a controversial tycoon from the Czech Republic. The paper’s editorial independence, staff said, was under threat. Recently, with tensions running high, hundreds of Le Monde journalists took an extraordinary step, demanding—in a column published by the paper—that their owners accede to their demands, or else face the consequences.