Press review 26 November 2008

by Daniel Finnan

Article published on the 2008-11-27 Latest update 2008-11-27 07:46 TU

The Centrist paper Le Monde leads with the story that, after four days of confusion, Martine Aubry has been chosen as the new leader of the Socialist Party. The Party's National Council voted for Aubry with 159 in favour and 76 against and she takes the reins of the party from Francois Hollande who is stepping down as leader after 11 years.

She will now present her management team to the National Council on Saturday 6 December. The leftwing Libération leads with the news of Aubry's victory, and wishes her "Bon Courage".

Le Monde also reports that excessive red Tuna fishing could endanger the survival of the species. After discussions on Monday, the international commission for the conservation of Tuna has fixed a quota of 22-thousand tonnes for red Tuna fishing in the Mediterrean in 2009.

This is a reduction of 6,500 from this year's quota, although actual catches have effectively reached 60,000 tonnes.

Back to Libération and they have a doublepage feature on Barack Obama's plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre. They interview Ken Gude from the US think-tank The Centre for American Progress, which is an organisation intended to help guide the future of the Democratic party and which is, interestingly, funded by billionnaire George Soros.

Obama announced on 17 November that he intends to close the infamous detention centre which houses some 255 prisoners who are suspected members of the Al-Qaeda terrrorist network. Gude considers the impact of Guantanamo and how it has tarnished the credibility and legimatcy of America in the eyes of the world.

As you may well have heard, the Audio-Visual Trade Unions ran a strike against planned government reforms on Tuesday. The Unions called for a 24 stoppage to oppose the government reforms and to stop the loss of 450 million euros of advertising revenue.

The Catholic newspaper, La Croix comments on the loss of revenue and its effect on the quality of programming. But it also considers the fact that young people watch less and less traditional media and that the influence of the internet is becoming more and more important. Does the French government really know what it's doing with public service broadcasting?

Finally, returning to Le Monde, the paper reports on an ancient tomb in Rome which was reopened to the public earlier this week. The tomb, dating back to the 2nd century AD was reopened after almost 30 years. Important restoration has taken place to preserve the important archeological remains.