Carte de presse

Journalist sacked for criticising French

By Charles Bremner

Journalist has been sacked by his newspaper for writing a book accusing the French media of letting anti-American and anti-British bias get the better of truth in their coverage of the Iraq war.

Alain Hertoghe, 44, a Belgian who worked for La Croix, a French national daily, lost his job for cataloguing distortions, omissions and fantasy that he said were fed to the public during the three weeks of fighting last spring.

Journalist Lambasts French War Coverage

By Elaine Ganley

Reporter Alain Hertoghe's book accused the French press of not being objective in its coverage of the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites). His newspaper fired him.

The book, "La Guerre a Outrances" (The War of Outrages), criticizes the French reporting for continually predicting the war would end badly for the U.S.-led coalition.

Author sees anti-US reporting

By John Vinocur

Alain Hertoghe believes that in covering the Iraq conflict, French newspapers recreated "the war they would have liked to have seen." That meant concentration on the Vietnams and Stalingrads that didn't take place, he said, and so many more accounts of U.S. difficulties rather than advances that it was "impossible to understand how the Americans won."

Les outrances françaises de l'antiguerre

Par Daniel Schneidermann

Dans l'indifférence générale, le quotidien la Croix vient de licencier un de ses journalistes, Alain Hertoghe, ancien rédacteur en chef adjoint du site Internet la Croix.fr. Le motif ? Hertoghe a publié un livre (1) critiquant la couverture de la guerre d'Irak, au printemps dernier, par cinq quotidiens français : le Figaro, Libération, le Monde, Ouest-France, ce qui n'eût sans doute pas posé problème. Mais aussi son propre journal, la Croix. A commencer par les éditoriaux de son directeur, Bruno Frappat, lequel n'a pas pratiqué le pardon des offenses. Quelques jours avant Noël, le rebelle a été jeté à la rue.

Muzzled in Paris

Review & Outlook

Alain Hertoghe, an editor at La Croix daily in Paris, recently wrote a study of the French coverage of the Iraq war, "La Guerre a Outrances" (All Out War). Without taking a position on the conflict himself, Mr. Hertoghe discovered that the five leading French dailies had clearly let their government's opposition to the war slant their reporting. As if to prove his point, La Croix fired Mr. Hertoghe last week.