Paris
Sarko and the press: A French newspaper owned by a friend of President–elect Nicolas Sarkozy killed a juicy story last week about Sarko’s wife, Cecilia. Le Journal du Dimanche found out that Cecilia hadn’t bothered to vote in the recent presidential runoff. But editor Jacques Esperandieu said he decided the story was not newsworthy and ordered it cut from the paper. He denied getting any pressure from the owner, Sarko’s friend Arnaud Lagardere. Still, the French journalism watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said the move boded poorly for effective coverage of the new president. Sarkozy is close to several media magnates, and the group says that might make newspapers reluctant to criticize him. Last year, when Sarkozy was interior minister, Lagardere fired the editor of a magazine after it ran pictures of Cecilia and the man with whom she was having an affair.
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