ABSTRACT
After summarising the origins and contents of the rules that constitute the regulatory apparatus of the French press, this chapter examines the main grievances levelled at the press in France and looks at a few telling examples. It also examines the various proposals advanced to solve some of the problems posed by the evolution of journalistic practice to emphasize their weaknesses. Examples of violations of the laws and ethics of journalism committed by the French press since the beginning of the 1990s abound, and it would be impossible to compile an exhaustive list of them here. The chapter lists a few of the most-often cited examples, before giving a rudimentary typology of the more frequently committed forms of misconduct. The diversification of contemporary means of communication seems to be working toward the gradual extinction of traditional French journalism whose references are slowly being eclipsed.
