French President Emmanuel Macron has come under fire from broadcasters and rival MPs after unveiling “Orwellian” plans to certify “serious” news outlets.
Mr Macron suggested media outlets should carry a label awarded by professionals to distinguish them from those pumping out fake news.
However, the French President’s critics warn that the drive against disinformation will curtail freedom of the press and establish a 1984-style “Ministry of Truth”.
The Republicans, France’s mainstream centre-right party, launched a petition against the “scandalous and dangerous” proposal.
“Emmanuel Macron has no mandate from the people to designate good and bad media outlets,” the petition has warned.
“The certification of news would amount to introducing an official truth: that is not democracy.”
The Republicans' Senate leader Bruno Retailleau directly accused Mr Macron of flirting with George Orwell’s Big Brother.
He said: “France does not need a Ministry of Truth.”
'Emmanuel Macron has no mandate from the people to designate good and bad media outlets,' the petition has warned
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Meanwhile, National Rally president Jordan Bardella labelled the plan an “authoritarian temptation” by “a man who has lost power and seeks to maintain it by controlling information”.
However, French media tycoon Vincent Bollore launched the most scathing attack against Mr Macron.
Mr Bollore, an ultra-conservative Catholic billionaire often dubbed “the French Rupert Murdoch”, owns television news channel CNews, radio station Europe 1 and recently acquired Sunday newspaper Journal du Dimanche.
The JDD accused Mr Macron of a “totalitarian drift” and of wanting to “bring to heel the media that do not think like him”.
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French media tycoon Vincent Bollore launched the most scathing attack against Mr Macron
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CNews presenter Pascal Praud also told viewers the French President was seeking a “middle way between the Ministry of Truth and Pravda under Brezhnev”.
Mr Macron first considered the controversial media plan following a meeting with readers of La Voix du Nord.
He said: “I think it is important that there is a certification done by professionals who can say ‘those are people who are serious [and] those are not people who give information’.”
However, the French President caveated his proposal by removing his administration’s input from the classification stage.
Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron | REUTERS"It’s not the Government or the state that can say, ‘this is information, this is not’,” Mr Macron added.
“If the state verifies, that becomes a dictatorship.”
Maud Bregeon, a Government spokeswoman, has since denied any plan for a state label.
“The Government is not going to create this or that label intended for the press, still less a Ministry of Truth,” she said.
Marine Le Pen stood aside as RN leader for Jordan Bardella in 2022 | GETTYHowever, the centre-left Even Le Monde also suggested Mr Macron was “not the best placed” to lead the fight against misinformation.
In a damning editorial, the publication argued the French President “runs the risk of being suspected of being both judge and jury” and “fuelling the mistrust of the conspiracy theorists he intends to counter”.
But Mr Macron has also been the subject of misinformation since entering power.
The French President was rumoured to be buying an Aston Martin and later denounced a pro-Russian hoax that suggested he took cocaine on a train to Kyiv.