Macron faces early tensions with French media

PARIS: The French presidency  attempted to defuse early tensions  with the media on Friday  after handpicking journalists  to accompany newly elected  Emmanuel Macron on a trip to  west Africa.  Representatives from 25  media organisations including  AFP, news channels BFM and  TF1 and newspapers Le  Monde and Le Figaro signed  an open letter Thursday expressing  their "concerns"  about Macron’s communication  strategy.  "It is not at all up to the Elysee  to choose who among us  has the right to cover a trip,  whatever the theme," the letter  said.  Presidential spokesman  Sylvain Fort said that "in one  or two cases" journalists had  been contacted directly and offered  some of the limited  places available to travel with  Macron to Mali on Friday.  Other aides had previously  described the choice of journalists  as a deliberate ploy to  bring along "specialists" rather  than the political media pack  which routinely follows the  president.  "The journalists who were  worried can be reassured: the  Elysee does not intend to do  the work of newsrooms," said  a statement from the presidency  addressed to media  freedom group Reporters  without Borders, which also  signed the open letter.  Macron, 39, has said he intends  to keep his distance  from the press in an effort to  restore the authority of the  presidential office which he  felt was damaged under his  gossip-loving predecessor  Francois Hollande.  Hollande would regularly  chat to reporters off-therecord  but was damaged by a  tell-all book, "A President  Shouldn’t Say That", published  at the end of his term based on  his conversations with two political  journalists.  A regular in glossy magazines  during his political ascent  and omnipresent on television  during campaigning,  Macron now plans to speak  rarely in an effort to keep focused  on his longer-term priorities.  Journalists were cleared  out of the presidential palace  press room soon after his inauguration  last Sunday and  were kept at a distance during  the first meeting of his government  on Thursday. —AFP