President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday denied having any plan for a "ministry of truth" in France after right-wing and far-right politicians and media charged that his drive against disinformation risked curtailing freedom of press and expression.
Macron has in the last weeks intensified warnings on the risks of disinformation, on Friday calling for changes to French legislation that would allow "false information" online to be urgently blocked.
'Ministry of truth'
He has also called for "professional certification" of outlets to distinguish sites and networks that provide reliable information according to ethical rules from others that do not.
But at the weekend, the Journal du Dimanche Sunday newspaper, part of the influential media stable of right-wing tycoon Vincent Bollore, accused Macron in a front-page story of a "totalitarian drift" on the issue.
It also denounced "the temptation of a ministry of truth", referring to the propaganda branch of the totalitarian system in British novelist George Orwell's dystopian fiction "1984".
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This accusation was then repeated on other Bollore-owned media outlets including the CNews television channel and radio station Europe 1, whose star presenter Pascal Praud lambasted a "president unhappy with his treatment by the media and who wants to impose a single narrative".
The leader of the far-right National Rally (RN) party Jordan Bardella chipped in, telling CNews: "Tampering with freedom of expression is an authoritarian temptation, which corresponds to the solitude of a man... who has lost power and seeks to maintain it by controlling information."
The leader of the right-wing Republicans and former interior minister Bruno Retailleau said on X that "no government has the right to filter the media or dictate the truth."
'False information'
In a rare such response to criticism, the Elysee on its X account posted excerpts of various comments by Praud and other likeminded commentators with the title "attention false information".
Addressing the weekly cabinet meeting, Macron denied that any such moves to limit freedom of expression were afoot, including the state itself awarding any health label to media.
"As the president of the republic noted at the start of the cabinet meeting, there is not going to be a state label, and even less a 'ministry of truth,' said government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon.
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Macron has previously said it was not for the government to classify what is good information and what is bad information, and any labelling should be done by media professionals.
But Macron has also in recent weeks called for greater regulation of social media and their algorithms, where he said it is the "Wild West" rather than "free speech".
Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, have long been targeted by false online claims that she was born a man.
The controversy comes in a febrile climate in France ahead of the 2027 presidential elections, in which Macron is not allowed to stand for a third term and the far-right senses its best-ever chance of taking the Elysee.
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With far-right three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen potentially unable to stand due to a graft conviction, an Odoxa-Mascaret poll last month projected that Bardella would win the second round of elections irrespective of who stood against him.
(with newswires)
