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Mediapart (French:[medjapaʁt]) is an independent French investigative online newspaper created in 2008 by Edwy Plenel,[1] former editor-in-chief of Le Monde. It is published in French, English, and Spanish, and has produced hundreds of investigations over the past 15 years, on political corruption, financial corruption, and environmental damage, as well as on social, sexual, and police violence. In March 2021, Mediapart reached more than 220,000 paid subscribers.[3] According to euro|topics, a news aggregator published by the German federal government agency Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Mediapart's political orientation is left wing.[2]
Profile
Mediapart's income is only derived from paid subscribers.[1] Unlike most French newspapers, Mediapart refuses to display any advertising. It also refuses all commercial partnerships.[4] Mediapart's official slogan is "Only our readers can buy us".
The New York Times has called Mediapart "France's leading investigative news site".[5]The Financial Times described the editor as an "ex-Trotskyist rocking the French establishment".[6]
Mediapart consists of two main sections: Le Journal, run by professional journalists, and Le Club, a collaborative forum edited by its subscriber community. In 2011, Mediapart launched FrenchLeaks, a whistleblower website inspired by WikiLeaks.[7][8]
Mediapart was originally a for-profit business. In 2018, the newspaper was converted by shareholders into a non-profit trust in order to fully protect its independence.[9] Le Fond pour une Presse Libre is a non-profit trust created to secure the financial and editorial independence of Mediapart in perpetuity and defend freedom of the press.[9] By design, trust board members do not have any authority over the newsroom.[10]
Landmark investigations
Mediapart has played a central role in the investigation and revelation of several major French political scandals, including:
The Sarkozy-Gaddafi case in 2012. Mediapart made public two official Libyan documents suggesting the existence of a €50 million transfer from the Libyan regime to Nicolas Sarkozy's successful 2007 campaign for President of France. In June 2021, Mediapart reported that Michèle Marchand, an influential figure in the French celebrity press and proponent of Nicolas Sarkozy, had been taken into custody and interviewed over alleged witness tampering in relation to a witness in the corruption trial against him.[12]
The Cahuzac affair in 2012. Mediapart made public an audio recording from 2000 compromising Jérôme Cahuzac, then France's Minister for the Budget, in tax fraud.[13]
Former National Front candidate Jean-Claude Veillard's role in the payment of taxes to ISIS middlemen by Lafarge in 2013–2014.[14]
The Benalla Affair. On 31 January 2019 Mediapart released voice recordings attributed to Alexandre Benalla and Vincent Crase which suggested serious offenses committed by the two.[15] On 4 February 2019 the office of Mediapart was subjected to a raid which failed as Mediapart refused it on the ground that the warrant was not authorised by a judge. The raid was in connection with a new investigation concerning a breach of Benalla's and Crase's privacy, prompted by the office of the Prime Minister.[16] Neither of the two has launched action against Mediapart for breach of privacy. Mediapart sees in the raid an attempt by the Government to reveal and intimidate the source of the voice recordings and to stifle journalistic rights to inform the public.[17]Mediapart has never been subject to such a raid before, and received support from other press organisations and the European Federation of Journalists.[18] The incident was reported by the New York Times[19] and the Washington Post.[20]
In July 2019 Mediapart revealed that €63,000 of public money had been spent by François de Rugy on the refurbishment of his official residence, including €19,000 on a dressing room, and published photographs of lobster and champagne dinners, implying profligacy at the taxpayers' expense whilst he was President of the National Assembly.[21][22] On 16 July 2019 Rugy resigned as Ecology Minister.[23]
In April 2021 Mediapart revealed that luxury giant LVMH secretly paid Bernard Squarcini, the former head of French intelligence, to put journalist François Ruffin under illegal surveillance.[24] Ruffin was preparing a documentary about billionaire Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH.[24]
In May 2022 Mediapart revealed that Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, one of the most powerful news anchors in France, had been accused of rape and sexual assault by at least 20 different women.[25]
