Instead of giving into the temptation of poor quality news and cutting staff numbers, the editorial staff of Le Monde has neither lost soul nor substance. The news has never been considered to be a mere product or source of profit. Over the past ten years, the number of journalists has risen to 450 persons.
When we lost the economic control of our business, in 2010, we journalists did not abandon our culture of independence – forged over seventy-five years of a very eventful history. We did not surrender our capacity to defend collectively our principles and values. We have retained full control of our texts and images. This freedom, protected from any form of intervention or influence, has enabled us to publish stories and investigations which challenged political and economic powers in France and abroad.
Our most valuable asset
This is our most valuable asset. Any substantial change in the capital that would not be approved by the staff would jeopardize the relationship built over the past ten years with our shareholders. It would cast a shadow over the value of journalism at Le Monde and would deteriorate our readers’ trust.
In contrast, the granting of a right of approval for new controlling shareholders would strengthen our independence. Now that Xavier Niel has proved his commitment, we expect Matthieu Pigasse and Daniel Kretinsky to do the same.
This is an opportunity for Mr Kretinsky to match words with deeds and to demonstrate his « desire to support traditional journalism » and « uphold democracy », as he stated in Paris on September 5th.
