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French communist newspaper launches campaign to save itself from liquidation

FRENCH communist newspaper L’Humanite was fighting for its survival yesterday, launching a campaign to save itself from liquidation after 115 years of publication.

The newspaper, which was founded by socialist Jean Jaures in 1904, said it was putting itself “in the hands of the people” as it appealed for help in raising the funds needed to stave off a potential bankruptcy order which could close the paper down. 

L’Humanite’s director Patrick Le Hyaric, also a French Communist Party (PCF) member of the European Parliament (MEP), launched a major drive to save the newspaper in Monday’s edition, calling on supporters to help with “no bank willing to work alongside us.”

He has previously called for state support to protect media pluralism in France and the paper received €3.6 million (£3.1m) in public funding in 2016.

But the ministry of culture has withdrawn €1m (£800,700) in subsidies, leaving the paper’s strapline — “In an ideal world, L’Humanite would not exist” — closer to becoming reality. 

More than 200 staff are employed at the newspaper, with around 125 of them journalists whose jobs are at risk with the looming threat of closure. Their salaries are now being paid by AGS, an insurance fund established by French employers.

Mr Le Hyaric warned: “Letting L’Humanite die would be tantamount to weakening the quality of the press and drying up the opposition debate.”

L’Humanite’s survival “is a political question of the first order, about the pluralistic expression of ideas and democracy,” he argued. 

The newspaper has a circulation of more than 32,000 and organises the huge annual Fete de l’Humanite fundraising festival of music and politics which attracts around 600,000. 

A court decision on the future of the paper was due as the Star went to print. 

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