Macron’s Ministry of Truth

Macron is losing power and the plot! In an effort to control the narrative, he's introducing reliability checks on new sources, just like Orwell's Minitrue.

From The European Conservative

By Hélène De Lauzun, PhD

Panic in the face of a country slipping out of his grasp? Macron intends to tighten his grip on public opinion and the press.

Emmanuel Macron’s obsession with controlling the media landscape has reached a new level with his plan to introduce a reliability label for news sites in order to track down ‘misinformation.’

The announcement was made during a trip by the president to Arras in northern France on Wednesday, November 19th, to meet with readers of a regional newspaper at a conference on the theme of “Democracy put to the test by social media and algorithms.”

The president defended the idea of a ‘professional’ label for social media and news sites in order to reassure readers about the reliability of content and combat ‘misinformation.’

The establishment of a control system obviously raises the question of which body will be responsible for this control. It must, of course, be objective, independent, and impartial. Macron intends to entrust this delicate task to the NGO Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, or RSF).

The problem is that it is difficult to consider RSF to be an objective, independent, and impartial organisation. Under the guise of good intentions—defending press freedom, human rights, and democracy—the NGO published a video in the summer of 2024, in the midst of the French legislative election campaign, that was openly militant in calling for votes to be diverted away from the Rassemblement National (RN) candidate, Marine Le Pen. The 15-minute clip painted an exaggerated portrait of a woman deemed dangerous to France because of her closeness to Viktor Orbán, himself considered harmful to his country, where, the RSF alleged, he would be exercising tight control over the media … control that Macron, in turn, would like to see, but in the service of his own political values. The NGO also launched an online petition: “In the face of the RN, let’s defend independent and pluralistic journalism!” It is difficult to understand their definition of pluralism in these circumstances.

Macron’s decision to entrust this labelling mission to RSF comes at a particularly inopportune moment. On Thursday, November 20th, the public television channel France 2 was scheduled to broadcast an investigative magazine programme, Complément d’enquête, devoted to the alleged excesses of the conservative channel CNews, owned by Catholic billionaire Vincent Bolloré. The programme, which was entirely critical, included a segment that used figures compiled by RSF to prove the channel’s ideological bias in favour of the Right and the ‘far Right.’ According to the NGO, CNews undermines the objective of pluralism in the topics covered and the guests invited onto its programmes by only inviting left-wing speakers onto its nighttime programmes—thus ensuring that no one will watch them.

However, the usual refrain of disparagement against CNews, which has become one of the favourite pastimes of the mainstream media, could not be sung this time around. The independent media regulatory authority, Arcom, ruled that the programme was distorting the truth, that the figures put forward by RSF were questionable, and that the channel’s alleged ideological bias was unproven. In an extremely rare move, Arcom asked the public channel France 2 to cut the programme just before it went on air in order to restore balance and moderation to the discussion.

Macron’s protected NGO was thus publicly and scathingly contradicted, and it is rumoured that since the episode, the president has been furious with Arcom—which is usually more eager to comply with the orders of those in power.

At the same time, our friends at the Thomas More Institute have used artificial intelligence tools to decipher the left-wing political bias of public radio. The bias is proven. The result is edifying. The approach is innovative: throughout October, public radio’s morning programmes were scrutinised using an AI tool “to analyse all the comments made on the air, without human selection,” explains Jean-Thomas Lesueur, director of the institute. Each segment—hundreds of hours of programming—was analysed in terms of its language. The method is completely transparent and therefore reproducible in the future: a valuable tool has thus been put in place.

This study shows that the most radical parties—LFI on the Left and RN on the Right—are clearly sidelined. The government’s right wing (Les Républicains) is severely criticised, while the moderate left enjoys obvious sympathy. The two stations France Inter and France Culture have been handed the most serious condemnation. France Info radio fares better, with notable efforts to achieve balance. On France Culture, there are 66 left-leaning columns, compared to only 6 on the right—and 28 neutral ones. “On sensitive issues—justice, discrimination, police violence, international affairs—the imbalance is even more pronounced: the vast majority of these topics are addressed from a left-wing perspective, with no real editorial counterbalance,” the report reveals. Right-wing parties also generate the most hostile or aggressive comments.

Today, publicly funded media outlets are clearly not playing the game of political pluralism—this has now been proven, quantified, and documented beyond any doubt. Under these circumstances, what good can we expect from a state-sponsored agency that would analyse the reliability and neutrality of news sites?

Macron’s media labelling project is causing concern. Several political figures have spoken out about the media control that this initiative would entail, which would only reinforce the ideological monopoly already enjoyed by the state media.

The mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, a liberal-conservative figure, has vigorously opposed Macron’s plan: “In a democracy, you don’t delegate the power to say what is ‘reliable’ to a body approved by the executive. You guarantee pluralism and freedom, you don’t certify them,” he explained in a long post on X.

Editorialist and writer Mathieu Bock-Côté on CNews, presenter of the programme Face à l’info, one of the most popular in France, took up the subject to denounce Macron’s temptation to create a ministry of truth. According to him, the Lola case is one of the most emblematic examples for understanding the danger of labelling as conceived by the president. The horrific murder of the child by an Algerian immigrant was initially described as a mere news item. The Left considered the media coverage of this case to be unhealthy, as well as the denunciation, on this occasion, of the disastrous French migration policy that had allowed the little girl’s murderer to move freely on French territory. Talking about it turned the murder into a political event, and we should be grateful for that. It is precisely in the interpretation and analysis of ‘news items’ that press freedom lies.

The conflict between the Élysée Palace and CNews has now taken on the characteristics of a war, an almost personal duel: something never seen before. On the evening of December 1st, the Élysée’s official account posted a video clip attacking CNews by name, only fuelling suspicions of orchestrated state propaganda that have already been stirring French public opinion for many weeks. “A state scandal. The Ministry of Truth in action. The Élysée is openly attacking Bolloré’s private media outlets. The illiberal and authoritarian drift is absolute. Labelling a media outlet means embracing the practices of authoritarian regimes that are foreign to French freedom,” denounced Éric Ciotti, president of the Union of the Rights for the Republic (UDR) and ally of the Rassemblement National, on X. A state scandal indeed, and a very dangerous game: CNews has never been so popular among French audiences.

More and more media outlets are now expressing concern about the president’s media plan. “Emmanuel Macron’s very bad idea,” headlines the centre-right weekly Le Point. “The strange obsession,” adds Le Figaro. Even The Huffington Post, which usually tends to be pro-Macron, uses the controversial expression “ministry of truth” borrowed from Orwell in its headline.

A year and a half before the presidential elections, the president is embarking on a path that is likely to ruin the entire French political debate—which is already in poor shape.