A few days after publishing a viral video of French President Sarkozy insulting someone, Le Parisien's editors are justifying the modifications they made to the transcript of an interview with Sarkozy.

Following the event, a panel of eight readers of the paper had a conversation with the President. As is the norm in France, Le Parisien's article about the exchange was submitted to the Elysée prior to publication. In the version that was returned to Le Parisien, a new sentence was added to the transcript: "It would have been better had I not answered."

The correction came in too late and Le Parisien published the original interview, without that sentence, on Feb. 26. On Feb. 27, Le Parisien published a corrected version of the original interview, with the new sentence in the headline.

"Instead of hypocritically inserting that phrase, we chose to put it in the headline because it has punch in the journalistic sense," wrote Dominique de Montvalon, deputy newsroom director, and Henri Vernet, editor of the politics section, in the Feb. 27 edition.

To have excluded that phrase, "which is representative in a few hours of the evolution of the presidential view, would have meant depriving everybody of a late, but essential, clarification."

However, to even include that sentence entirely changes the angle of the story, portraying Sarkozy as regretful of his conduct. In contrast, Sarkozy "hadn't expressed the least bit of regret" during the interview, said Montvalon. "The tone was: me, Sarkozy, if you provoke me, you find me."

One may wonder what Le Parisien's course of action would have been had this happened during a private interview with one of its journalists, or if the amended version had been submitted earlier.

In this specific situation though, it seems Le Parisien's editors adopted a wise strategy, by publishing the amended interview and giving an explanation about it: "I am frank and prefer to modesly say how things are. I choose the lesser harm. That way I avoid to be interrogated by readers or by the newsroom's journalists," said Montvalon.

This should reignite discussions about the widespread practice of newspaper articles being reviewed by the interviewees, an issue that has yet to be solved in France.

Source: Le Monde