In France, a free press? Not when it comes to racism.

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — Last week, Paris’s court of appeals sentenced Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder and president of the Front National, the radical right-wing French political party, to three months prison time, with parole, and a 10,000 euro fine. Le Pen had appealed the sentence, first handed down last February, for remarks made [...]

Once again, it begins to bubble over.

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — Despite calls for moderation and restraint by politicians, religious leaders and community activists, anti-semitic violence has begun to crop up across France (see Le Monde, Reuters, Le Figaro). But the French press, unlike the international media, hesitate, still, to acknowledge what seems to be the reality of the situation: [...]

The French on Gaza

– By Scott Sayare –
BOSTON — France, and the EU more generally, has long struck a more moderate stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than the US, and French sympathy tends to side with the Palestinian cause. Which makes the piece that appears today in Le Figaro (though, admittedly, the most conservative of France’s three largest [...]