Acrimed

Foundation

Acrimed was founded in March 1996 by Henri Maler, a philosopher and political activist, along with the sociologist Patrick Champagne and several other academics, journalists, and media professionals.^[3][4] Its creation was a direct response to the 1995 French public sector strikes, a major wave of strikes and demonstrations against the social security reform plan proposed by Prime Minister Alain Juppé. The founders believed that mainstream French media had taken sides against the strikers and had suppressed the expression of the movement's participants.^[5]

The founding act was an "Appeal for democratic action on the terrain of media" (Appel pour une action démocratique sur le terrain des médias), published in early 1996.^[5] The association emerged from the same intellectual milieu as the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's critique of television and journalism, articulated in his 1996 book Sur la télévision. Bourdieu supported the creation of Acrimed from 1996 onward and approved of its activities, though he did not participate directly in the association.^[6]

Henri Maler served as Acrimed's principal coordinator from its founding until January 2015.^[3]

Development

In October 2011, Acrimed began publishing Médiacritiques, a quarterly print magazine featuring thematic dossiers on media issues. Each issue has a print run of approximately 2,000 to 2,500 copies and is sold in bookshops and through the association's online shop.^[2]

Acrimed co-publishes, together with Le Monde diplomatique (a publication with which it shares political affinities within what both describe as the gauche de gauche), an infographic map titled "Médias français : qui possède quoi ?" ("French media: who owns what?"), which charts the ownership structure of French media companies. Acrimed has itself acknowledged this shared positioning, noting in 2024 that it and Le Monde diplomatique share "positions (within the 'left of the left'), analyses (on the critique of dominant media) and initiatives".^[7]

Anti-capitalist media critique

Acrimed's analytical framework is rooted in an explicitly anti-capitalist critique of media ownership and journalistic practice. The association draws on Marxist and Bourdieusian sociology of media, as well as on Noam Chomsky's propaganda model, to analyse media through the lens of class domination and capitalist structures.^[2][5] It has produced a podcast series titled "Two centuries of anti-capitalist media criticism" (Deux siècles de critique anticapitaliste des médias).^[8] On its own website, Acrimed describes its approach as a "radical and uncompromising" (radicale et intransigeante) critique, while also claiming independence.^[9]

The association argues that journalism is subordinated to economic powers that dominate media companies and to political powers that maintain them under tutelage, and that this situation explains what it sees as systematic violations of journalistic ethics.^[2] It rejects what it calls "the myth of the fourth estate" (le mythe du quatrième pouvoir), the idea that the press functions as a democratic check on power.^[2]

Criticism of mainstream media

Acrimed's primary targets include what it terms the éditocratie ("editocracy"), referring to a small circle of prominent commentators and editorialists whom it accuses of monopolising opinion space in French media and narrowing the range of acceptable political discourse.^[10] The association also criticises media concentration, particularly the role of industrialist Vincent Bolloré in French media.

In 2023, Acrimed published Les médias contre la gauche ("The media against the left") through Éditions Agone, arguing that dominant media have actively contributed to the rightward shift of French public debate over forty years. The book was subsequently reissued in a pocket edition.^[10]

Relationship with La France insoumise

Acrimed has published extensive analyses defending La France insoumise (LFI), the radical left party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, against what the association characterises as a sustained media campaign of denigration, particularly since the 7 October 2023 attacks. It has argued that mainstream media labelled LFI as "antisemitic" in coordination with political opponents, and that the conditions for the existence of the radical left in public debate are "more obstructed than ever".^[11]