Paris
\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron on Friday faced accusations of seeking to reduce the media to merely reproducing press releases after blaming journalists, ministers and commentators for the furor over comments attributed to him on Israel.
\nA visibly furious Macron late Thursday began his press conference after an EU summit in Brussels with a tirade against those who he accused of distorting remarks made in a closed-door cabinet meeting and showing a \u201clack of professionalism\u201d in their work.
\nThe remarks attributed to Macron that Israel needed to adhere to UN resolutions in its campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza as the state was created by the world body angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but also sparked strong reactions in France.
\nHis comments were quoted by two participants who spoke to AFP after the meeting and asked not to be named.
\n\u201cMr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN,\u201d Macron told ministers, referring to the resolution adopted in November 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly on the plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
\nNetanyahu accused Macron of a \u201cdistressing distortion of history\u201d and \u201cdisrespect.\u201d In France, the speaker of the upper house Senate, Gerard Larcher, said he was \u201castounded\u201d by the remarks and accused the president of showing his \u201cignorance\u201d of history.
\n\u201cI would like you to allow me to recall a few rules,\u201d Macron solemnly told reporters at the start of his news conference on Thursday.
\n\u201cI must tell you how astonished I was to read so many comments, comments on comments, reactions, including from political leaders, foreign or French, to remarks that I made without seeking to know what exactly I said.\u201d
\nMacron attacked \u201cministers,\u201d \u201cjournalists\u201d and \u201ccommentators\u201d for the ensuing controversy, denying his remarks \u201cas they were reported,\u201d arguing his words were taken out of context.
\n\u201cI believe I say enough about the situation in the Middle East not to need a ventriloquist,\u201d he added.
\nHe called on ministers to \u201cshow respect for the rules and functions so as not to circulate false information\u201d and on journalists \u201cto treat the remarks reported with the necessary precautions.\u201d
\nAfter come critics in France questioned whether Macron had been casting doubt on Israel\u2019s right to exist, the president said that \u201cthere is no ambiguity\u201d in the position of France.
\nBut the Association of the Presidential Press (APP), which groups together reporters covering the head of state, said Macron had \u201cseriously questioned the ethics of the press, which investigates and cross-checks its sources rigorously.\u201d
\n\u201cOur work cannot be limited to repeating official statements. The definition of journalism cannot be a presidential prerogative,\u201d it said.
\nWith heavy sarcasm, Greens MP Benjamin Lucas said on X: \u201cThat\u2019s right, journalists, why don\u2019t you simply and blindly reproduce the official press releases? Why bother searching, by cross-checking sources, to seek the truth?\u201c
\nBut after a controversy that has dogged Macron all week some supporters applauded his reactions.
\nForeign policy is one of the few areas where the president retains leeway after the inconclusive outcome to summer legislative elections and appointment of a right-wing government left the centrist looking increasingly isolated.
\n\u201cThe voice of France in the world deserves better than the distortion of the truth. Those who engage in this are playing a very dangerous game for the country,\u201d said pro-Macron MP Mathieu Lefevre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paris French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday faced accusations of seeking to reduce the media to merely reproducing press releases after blaming journalists, ministers and commentators for the furor over comments attributed to him on Israel. A visibly furious Macron late Thursday began his press conference after an EU summit in Brussels with a tirade …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":71802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71835,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71817\/revisions\/71835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}