France 3, has meanwhile pleaded “human error” after they changed the wording on his placard from “Macron out” to “Macron”.
But the activist Jean-Baptiste Voltuan Redde, is not convinced. He has announced that he filed an online complaint with the CSA on December 17.
Several Internet users were surprised by the broadcast of an altered press photo to illustrate the mobilisation of Yellow Vests in Paris on December 15. On the original version of this shot taken on the forecourt of the Opera Garnier by the photojournalist Geoffroy Van der Hasselt and broadcast by AFP, we see a large sign with the slogan “Macron dégage”.
But on the version of the broadcast on the news of France 3, the term “dégage” no longer appears on the same placard, and it reads only “Macron”.
The protester, who calls himself a poet and activist on his Twitter profile, told RT: “I filed a complaint online with the CSA this morning!”
Contacted by French daily Libération , France 3 pretended that the mistake was not picked up by the chief editor and the public channel announced that it would carry out an “investigation” into this matter before communicating on the incident.
Cited by AFP, the direction of the communication department of France Television said that it was “a mistake and a lack of discernment on the part of a person who contributes to the production of the televised news edition”.
They assured AFP: “This initiative was not brought to the notice of the chief editor of news. It is neither censorship nor a desire to conceal any information.”
Mais non, dites moi que je rêve, #France3 a vraiment modifié une pancarte "Macron dégage" dans son jt, c'est hallucinant !
Le lien pour vérifier, à partir de 4:07 : https://t.co/1cqwvycVG2 pic.twitter.com/iYCORy0ooW— Benoit Deverly 🔻📸 (@deverly_b) December 16, 2018
In the midst of the protests, a member of Macron’s LREM, Gilles Le Gendre meanwhile claimed that the government’s response has been poorly explained because President Macron’s administration is “too intelligent”.
According to Le Gendre, president of the LREM group in the National Assembly, the government has been too smart, too subtle and too technical.
According to the MP received on the programme Territoires d’infos on December 17, the members of the executive have “probably been too intelligent, too subtle, too technical” in concocting new measures without explaining them sufficiently to the citizens.
This assessment sounds like a repeat of the term “complex thoughts” used of the French head of state, at the Elysee Palace in July 2017 to justify the cancellation of the traditional interview of the President of the Republic by journalists.
Emmanuel Macron is often accused of arrogance by his opponents, and the assessment by Gilles Le Gendre did little for the image of the president and his supporters.
According to Le Gendre, the lack of clarity in the president’s the economic agenda, is because the French do not have the finesse to understand: “[Measures] were justified by the state of public finances but obviously they were not understood.”
It remains to be seen if these explanations will be enough to convince the Yellow Vests, who have continued their mobilisation.
