Macron's campaign to fight fake news meets resistance from right-wing media

By Michel Rose

PARIS, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A campaign by French President Emmanuel Macron to combat online disinformation has triggered a backlash from right-wing opponents and the increasingly influential conservative media empire controlled by billionaire Vincent Bollore.

The furore underscores how France is increasingly exposed to the cultural and business battles roiling media on both sides of the Atlantic – from the dominance of right-wing networks in the U.S. to the BBC's recent ordeals in Britain.

In recent weeks, Macron has toured the country warning about fake news, algorithm-driven manipulation and foreign-backed narratives. At town hall meetings organised by regional newspapers, the president has fielded questions from readers, underscoring what his office calls an urgent fight against digital falsehoods ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

However, the campaign has met fierce resistance from outlets in Bollore's right-leaning media group, which owns CNews - now France's biggest rolling news channel - as well as Journal du Dimanche weekly newspaper and Europe 1 radio.

The criticism emerged after Macron, speaking to the readers of La Voix du Nord daily last month, referred to an initiative by Reporters Without Borders to encourage voluntary "labelling" of news outlets by professionals to promote ethical practices.

He stressed this could not be done by the government.

"It's not up to the government or to the state to say: 'this is news, this isn't'. That's not what happens in a democracy. Otherwise, you very quickly become an autocracy," he said on November 19.

"However, I think it's important we have labelling done by professionals that can say ethically: this is done by people who manipulate information," he added.

Bollore titles and right-wing opponents later jumped on his words.

"The president wants to bring into line the media who don't think like him," the Journal du Dimanche said in a column, while CNews star show host Pascal Praud, a growing agenda-setter on the right, spoke of "an authoritarian drift by a president unhappy over how the media cover him".

SPAT MAY ATTRACT U.S. ATTENTION

The spat may attract the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, which has threatened media at home with lawsuits, but has attacked attempts to regulate social media in Europe, framing them as an assault on free speech and censorship of right-wing voices.

It comes as a senior State Department official, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, is due in Paris, where she will "reaffirm the Trump Administration's commitment to defending freedom of speech and digital freedom".

Macron's right-wing opponents also presented Macron's comments as a push for government censorship.

"Emmanuel Macron's goal is to control information," far-right leader Marine Le Pen told BFM TV on Tuesday.

Her protege, Jordan Bardella, likened the plan to George Orwell's "Ministry of Truth" in the dystopian novel "1984".

Responding to the uproar, Macron's office posted a video on X seeking to debunk the story. "Pravda? Ministry of truth? When talking about the fight against disinformation sparks disinformation," it said.

Alexis Levrier, a media historian at Reims University, said the attacks on Macron were a cynical ploy by his opponents.

"They cry foul over threats to freedom of expression when they are in opposition, and will impose censorship on all dissenting voices when they are in power," he told Reuters.

(Reporting by Michel Rose, Editing by Gabriel Stargardter and Ed Osmond)