France’s Le Monde reports that several Chinese official media, China Radio International and China Central Television’s overseas version of the Global TV Network, have published an article by an independent French journalist named Laurène Beaumond, whose views and content are fully consistent with the official Chinese propaganda.
On March 28, the French-language website of China’s Global TV Network published an article by the independent French journalist titled: My Xinjiang, Stop Fake News from Rampaging! The author, who claims to be an independent French journalist who has lived in China for seven years, along with her Family living in Urumqi, and who had visited Xinjiang several times between 2014 and 2019, said that the Xinjiang described by the French media was completely at odds with what she herself had seen and heard. But the problem is that this so-called independent French journalist does not in fact exist. Le Monde checked the database of the French Professional Press Accreditation Commission, which issues press cards to journalists, and the journalist’s name does not appear in the database at all, whereas according to her self-description, her name should appear in the database. Because she graduated from the School of Journalism and the Faculty of Arts of the Sorbonne, she had worked for several media outlets in Paris before moving to Beijing.
On March 31, China Radio International published in its Forum section an article by this non-existent journalist, who called on the French senators to abandon their plans to visit Taiwan, in response to the visit of a French Senate delegation, who claimed to be an expert on China and a passionate fan of Asian literature and folk art.
The so-called independent journalist, whose name appeared late last year, was first identified as suspicious by Antoine Bondaz, a researcher at the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, who mocked on Twitter, saying, “I can’t imagine that the website of China International Television, which has just received permission from the French High Council of Audiovisual Regulation (CSA) to broadcast in French in France, would have the audacity to use the name of the journalist. The website of the international TV station has the audacity to publish articles under a pseudonym.”
He also invited the journalist, who appears only on the website of the Chinese official media, to talk to her!
Could the CSA intervene?
Sara Cheyrouze, head of the public relations department of the French High Audiovisual Council (CSA), said that if the CGTN article about the French journalist was published only on the website of the media outlet, the CSA would not have the right to intervene, because the CSA monitors the TV and radio media, not the written content of the website. The CSA can only intervene if the CGTN TV channel mentions the name of the fake journalist in its programs.
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