Sun sparks cross-Channel war of words

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday February 21, 2003 15:31 by Claire

Claire Cozens Friday February 21, 2003 The Sun: the offending edition

France's biggest selling tabloid newspaper has hit back at the Sun's anti-Chirac stunt by condemning the "Murdoch propaganda machine" for its "very, very vulgar" attack on the president.
The Sun's special edition, which depicted President Jacques Chirac as a worm, was distributed yesterday in Paris and has sparked cross-Channel war of words which looks like putting previous spats in the shade.

The Sun distributed 2,000 copies of the special edition, which featured a French language splash headlined: "CHIRAC EST UN VER."

France Soir today reprinted the Sun's cover on its front page and devoted two inside pages to the issue under the headline: "The British press crosses the Channel to attack France."

The paper accused the Sun of turning "Francophobia" into a business opportunity.

Yesterday's Sun criticised President Chirac over France's opposition to a war on Iraq and his decision to invite the Zimbabwean leader, Robert Mugabe, to Paris.

In less troubled times, France Soir said, the UK campaigns were little more than attacks on "Froggies" over sporting rivalry.

This time the anti-French propaganda was in a "world context" and not so much an attack on the French nation but on French diplomacy, it added.

France Soir pointed out French diplomacy on the issue of Iraq seemed to have more of a following worldwide than the tactics of Tony Blair.

The million who marched on the streets of London last weekend could not all have been French exiles, said the paper - some must have been British citizens who disagreed with Mr Blair.

The paper devoted one article to the shocked reaction of French government officials to the depiction of their president as a worm.

The front page headline in France Soir expressed the mood in Paris by asking simply: "So this is English chic?"

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