POLITICO Website Kowtowed to Macron’s Demands to Cut More ‘Frank’ Comments on China

The POLITICO website has come under criticism for admitting that it redacted French President Emmanuel Macron’s more “frank” statements on the issue of Taiwan after being pressured by the Elysée Palace.

Following his state visit to Communist China last week, President Macron gave an interview to journalists from the German-0wned American website POLITICO, as well as members of the French press.

The interview with the website spurred international backlash over the French leader’s apparent disregard for the alliance with the United States, including on Europe’s continued use of the American dollar as a reserve currency and saying that the EU should not “follow” the U.S. into a conflict with Beijing should Xi Jinping launch an invasion of the democratic and independent nation of Taiwan — which the communists claim a right to, despite never governing over the island.

However, apparently, even more controversial comments were cut from the POLITICO article at the request of Macron’s administration. In a footnote at the bottom of the article, the website claimed that “as is common in France and many other European countries, the French President’s office, known as the Elysée Palace, insisted on checking and ‘proofreading’ all the president’s quotes to be published in this article as a condition of granting the interview.”

“This violates POLITICO’s editorial standards and policy, but we agreed to the terms in order to speak directly with the French president. POLITICO insisted that it cannot deceive its readers and would not publish anything the president did not say. The quotes in this article were all actually said by the president, but some parts of the interview in which the president spoke even more frankly about Taiwan and Europe’s strategic autonomy were cut out by the Elysée,” the footnote added.

According to Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, citing a “source close to the story”, all three media outlets that were granted an interview with Macron agreed to the terms of allowing the Elysée to “proofread” and redact quotes before publication.

The paper noted that this strongarming from the government is nothing new in France, with redacted interviews published in the French media carrying the tag “relu et corrigé” (re-read and corrected) below the headline in such cases.

Yet, even a former POLITICO journalist criticised the neo-liberal outlet for acquiescing to the demands of the Macron government.

Ex-French correspondent for the site, Rym Momtaz said: “Covering the Elysée is difficult because you have to have the spine to negotiate the terms of your access and interviews.

“When I interviewed Macron one on one for Politico on Lebanon, not a word was ‘proof-read’ or redacted by the Elysée. Those were my non-negotiable terms.”

Momtaz added: “Journos negotiate terms prior to speaking to Macron. You either accept them or change them and if you can’t change them and aren’t happy with them you decline the interview. That’s the leverage journos have collectively, because the Elysée needs the coverage.”

It is perhaps understandable why the French government would seek to reign in the comments made by the president, given the potential international ramifications. Indeed, shortly following the publication of Macron’s Republican Senator Marco Rubio suggested pulling support for the war in Ukraine, questioning why America is spending the lion share of military spending to supposedly protect Europe if allies in capitals such as Paris would be unwilling to back the U.S. in a conflict with China.

“If, in fact, Macron speaks for all of Europe, and their position now is they’re not gonna pick sides between the U.S. and China over Taiwan; maybe we shouldn’t be picking sides either,” the typically neo-conservative and hawkish Florida senator said.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka