Le Monde diplomatique (nicknamed "Le
Diplo" by its French readers) is a monthly publication offering
analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs.Its
articles are typically pieces of in depth and opinionated analysis
.
First created mainly for a diplomatic audience, as its name
implies, it has in recent years taken a critical view on the
effects of economic
capitalism on the
world and its population.
Since the 1970s, its editorial line has become decidedly
altermondialist and
left-wing.Throughout the
Cold
War, it had a
neutralist viewpoint,
often critical of
US foreign policy
.
As of March 2008 the paper is headed by
Serge Halimi.
The original French edition has a circulation of about 350,000;
sixteen editions in other languages bring the total to about 1.4
million readers worldwide.
History
1954 : Formation
Le Monde diplomatique was founded in 1954 by
Hubert Beuve-Méry, founder and
director of
Le Monde, the French
newspaper of record.Subtitled
the "organ of diplomatic circles and of large international
organisations, " 5,000 copies were distributed, comprising eight
pages, dedicated to
foreign policy
and
geopolitics.
Its first
editor in chief, François
Honti, made the newspaper into a scholarly reference journal.Honti
attentively followed the birth of the
Non-Aligned Movement, created out of
the 1955
Bandung
Conference, and the issues of the "
Third
World".
1973-1989
Claude Julien became the
newspaper's second editor in January 1973.At that time, the
circulation of
Le Monde diplomatique had jumped from 5,000
to 50,000 copies, and would reach, with Micheline Paulet, 120,000
in less than twenty years .
Without renouncing its "
Third-worldism" position, it extended the
treatment of its subjects, concentrating on international
economic and
monetary
problems, strategic relations, the
Middle-East conflict, etc.
Le Monde diplomatique took an independent stance,
criticizing the
neoliberal ideology
and policies of the 1980s, represented by
Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagan.
Post Cold War
After the
November, 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall
and the 1990-1991 Gulf War,
the newspaper made an important turn, and criticized the "American
crusade" . Ignacio Ramonet
was elected director in January 1991.
Le Monde diplomatique
analyzed the post-
Cold War world, paying
specific attention to "ethnic" conflicts – the
wars in former Yugoslavia, the 1994
Rwandan Genocide, the conflicts in the
Caucasus, etc. – as well as to the new
information technology.
After having published a famous editorial in January 1995 where
Ramonet coined the term "
pensée
unique" ("single thought") to describe the supremacy of the
neoliberal
ideology , the newspaper
supported the November-December
1995 general strike in France against
Prime minister
Alain Juppé's
(
RPR) plan to cut
pensions.
Three years later, after a proposal in a 1997 editorial by Ignacio
Ramonet,
Le Monde diplomatique took a founding role in the
creation of
ATTAC, an
alter-globalization NGO, which was originally
founded for advocacy of the
Tobin tax, and
which has since spread throughout the world.
Today
It now supports a variety of left-wing causes :
Newspaper
also takes an important role in the organisation of the 2001
Porto
Alegre
World Social
Forum.After the
September 11, 2001 attacks and
the
Second Gulf War starting in 2003 under
the
George W. Bush administration,
Le
Monde diplomatique continues its position of criticizing the
US policy of violent intervention in the Middle East and the
neoconservative' project to reshape
the so-called "
Greater Middle
East" region.
Jean-Marie Colombani, editor of
the daily
Le Monde, was attributed by
Le Monde
diplomatique's former director general
Bernard Cassen as saying: "
Le Monde
diplomatique is a journal of opinion;
Le Monde is a
journal of opinions."
9/11 conspiracy theories
The
Norwegian version of the July
2006
Le Monde diplomatique sparked interest when the
editors ran, on their own initiative, a three page main story on
the 9/11 attacks and summarized the various types of
9/11 conspiracy theories (which
were not specifically endorsed by the newspaper, only reviewed)
.
The
Voltaire Network, which has
somehow changed position since the September 11 attacks and whose
director,
Thierry Meyssan, became a
leading proponent of 9/11 conspiracy theory, explained that
although the Norwegian version of
Le Monde diplomatique
had allowed it to translate and publish this article on its
website, the mother-house, in France, categorically refused it this
right, thus displaying an open debate between various national
editions .
In December 2006, the French version published an article by
Alexander Cockburn, co-editor of
CounterPunch, which strongly
criticized the endorsement of conspiracy theories by the US
left-wing, alleging that it was a sign of "theoretical
emptiness."
The Norwegian
Le Monde diplomatique, did again however
mark its difference from the mother edition by allowing David Ray
Griffin's response to Cockburn to be published in their March 2007
issue .
Le Monde diplomatique SA
The monthly became a
subsidiary
company of
Le Monde SA in 1996, which grants its
complete editorial autonomy from
Le Monde.
André Fontaine, the director of
Le
Monde, had already signed a 1989 convention with Claude Julien
which guaranteed the monthly's autonomy, but it gained complete
statutory, economic and financial independence in 1996 with the
creation of
Le Monde diplomatique SA. With a donation from
Günter Holzmann, a German
antifascist
exiled before
World War II to Bolivia,
the monthly's employees acquired approximately one-quarter of the
capital, while
Les Amis du
Monde diplomatique, a 1901 Law association of readers, bought
another quarter. Thus, since the end of 2000, the newspaper's
employees and readers retain 49% of
Le Monde diplomatique
SA's capital, largely above the
control stock necessary to control the
direction and editorial line of the
Monde diplo. The
remaining 51% is owned by
Le Monde .
Distribution and advertising
As of 2007, the original French edition had a circulation of about
350,000. Worldwide there were seventy-one editions in twenty-six
other languages (including thirty-eight in print for a total of
about 2.2 million copies and thirty-three electronic
editions).
Although
Le Monde diplomatique publishes few
advertisements in order to retain its editorial
independence, it has sometimes been criticized for the quantity and
nature of the published advertisements . In November and December
2003, two-page advertisements by
IBM and a car
manufacturer were placed. The issues of February and March 2004
contained
advertisements by
Microsoft in a "social" atmosphere with a picture
of children, which led to agitation.
Rerouting of Air France 438
An
Air France passenger jet flying directly
from Paris
to Mexico City
on 18 April, 2009 was not allowed to fly over United States
territory and was rerouted to the Caribbean
island of Martinique
. The flight crew was informed that U.S.
authorities did not allow Hernando
Calvo Ospina, a Colombian
journalist traveling on an assignment for Le
Monde diplomatique, to fly over U.S. airspace. The
No Fly List maintained by the U.S.
government does not allow people on it to even cross American
airspace. In Mexico City, Calvo Ospina was briefly detained and
questioned.
He then proceeded to Nicaragua
for his assignment. A possible reason for
the rerouting is Calvo Ospina's journalism, sharply critical of
U.S. foreign policy. According
to the flight crew, the rerouting was without precedent for Air
France.
References
- « organe des cercles diplomatiques et des grandes
organisations internationales »
- Numbers given in Le Monde diplomatique depuis 1954..., Les Amis du
Monde diplomatique, 1901 law association, September 26,
2006
- La pensée unique, January 1995 editorial by
Ignacio
Ramonet in Le Monde diplomatique
- On the
Attack, interview with Le Monde diplomatique 's former
director general Bernard Cassen in The New Left
Review n°19, January-February 2003
- 11.September - an innsidde jobb?, Norwegian edition of
Le Monde diplomatique, July 2006. See also English
translation: Kim Bredesen, Was 9/11 an inside job? and other links
- * Pour le Monde diplomatique norvégien, le 11
septembre est un complot intérieur US, Voltaire
Network * El
11 de septiembre fue un complot interno estadounidense, estima la
prensa noruega
- * Distractions from awful reality - US: the conspiracy that
wasn’t, by Alexander Cockburn in Le Monde
diplomatique, December 2006 * Scepticisme ou occultisme? Le complot du 11-Septembre
n’aura pas lieu, by Alexander Cockburn in Le Monde
diplomatique, December 2006 * Iranian
translation * PODERES IMAGINÁRIOS - A "conspiração" das Torres
Gêmeas
- Konspirasjonsteorien om 11. september
- minorité de blocage
- To check the latest figures, see * «
International editions »
- * « Le Monde Diplomatique, publicitaire des multinationales
? » sur Acrimed
- Report of the rerouting of Air France 438, by Hernando
Calvo Ospina.
External links