Rue 89

Rue 89 is a French website created by former journalists from "Libération". It was officially launched on 6 May, 2007, on the day of the second round of the French presidential election. Its news editor is Pascal Riché, former Op-ed editor of "Libération", and its chief editor and president of the society "Rue 89" is Pierre Haski, former deputy editor of "Libération".

History

"Rue 89" was co-founded by Pierre Haski, Pascal Riché, Arnaud Aubron, Michel Lévy-Provençal, and Laurent Mauriac. "Libération", which had been bought back by Édouard de Rothschild, was then in the turmoil of a crisis, which included a plan of downsizing and the voluntary resignation of a number of its historical members. As soon as 14 May, 2007, "Rue 89" published its first scoop, taken up by the rest of the French press, which concerned the censorship of an article which was to be published by the "Journal du dimanche", owned by Arnaud Lagardère, who is close to Sarkozy. The suppressed article spoke about the abstention of Cécilia Sarkozy, the wife of the new President Nicolas Sarkozy, at the second round of the Presidential election.

On 5 September, 2007, Pascal Riché revealed that Alexis Debat, a collaborator of "The National Interest" and of ABC News, had signed a false interview of Barack Obama, published in "Politique Internationale". The article underlined a number of incoherencies concerning Debat's alleged Curriculum Vitae [ Pascal Riché, [http://www.rue89.com/2007/09/05/une-fausse-interview-dobama-dans-politique-internationale Une fausse interview d'Obama dans Politique internationale] , "Rue 89", 5 September 2007 fr icon ] . Rue 89's scoop was taken up by "The Washington Post", and Debat resigned from "The National Interest" Howard Kurtz, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/12/AR2007091202333.html?sub=AR Consultant Probed in Bogus Interview] , "The Washington Post", September 13, 2007 en icon] .

Name

According to its editor, Pascal Riché, the name Rue89 has been chosen as a reference to freedom, through French Revolution (1789) and the fall of the Berlin wall (1989) as much as the symbolism of the street (in French: la rue) as a place of meeting and discussion. Also, 1989 is the birthdate of the web.

Founders

* Pierre Haski, President of the society Rue89 and editor in chief ("directeur de la publication")
* Pascal Riché, news editor ("rédacteur en chef")
* Arnaud Aubron, webmaster/editor
* Michel Lévy-Provençal
* Laurent Mauriac

Team

* Damien Cirotteau : IT engineer
* Zineb Dryef : journalist
* Yann Guégan : publisher
* Guillemette Faure : journalist
* Julien Martin : journalist
* Ophélie Neiman : journalist
* Augustin Scalbert : journalist
* David Servenay : journalist

References

See also

*Bakchich, other news website founded in 2006

External links

* [http://www.rue89.com Official website] .
* [http://www.rue89.com/street_89 Street 89(English version)]
* [http://www.rue89.com/calle89 Calle 89(Spanish version)]
* [http://www.rue89japon.com/ Rue89Japon(Japanese version)]

* Stephen Brook, [http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2008/06/wan_2008.html WAN 2008: French news site triumphs against print media] , June 4, 2008, "The Guardian" blogs