Le Soir
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Le Soir'' (, "The Evening") is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. It is one of the most popular Francophone newspapers in Belgium, competing with ''
La Libre Belgique ''La Libre Belgique'' (; literally ''The Free Belgium''), currently sold under the name ''La Libre'', is a major daily newspaper in Belgium. Together with ''Le Soir'', it is one of the country's major French language newspapers and is popular in ...
'', and since 2005 has appeared in
Berliner format Berliner, or "midi", is a newspaper format with pages normally measuring about . The Berliner format is slightly taller and marginally wider than the tabloid/compact format; and is both narrower and shorter than the broadsheet format. Origi ...
. It is owned by
Rossel & Cie Groupe Rossel (full name : Rossel & Cie, S.A.) is a major media group in Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Ca ...
, which also owns several Belgian news outlets and the French paper '' La Voix du Nord''.


History and profile

''Le Soir'' was founded as a free advertising newspaper in 1887. Later it became a paying paper. When Belgium was occupied during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, ''Le Soir'' continued to be published under German censorship, unlike many Belgian newspapers which went underground. The paper, which became known as "Le Soir Volé" (or "Stolen Le Soir"), was parodied by the resistance group, the ''
Front de l'Indépendance The Independent Front (french: Front de l'Indépendance or FI; nl, Onafhankelijkheidsfront, OF) was a left-wing faction of the Belgian Resistance in German-occupied Belgium in World War II. It was founded in March 1941 by Dr Albert Marteaux ...
'' which in 1943 published a satirical pro-Allied edition of the paper, dubbed the "
Faux Soir The "''Faux Soir''" was a spoof issue of the newspaper ''Le Soir'' published in German-occupied Belgium on 9 November 1943. It was produced by the Front de l'Indépendance, a faction in the Belgian Resistance, in a satirical style that ridiculed ...
" (or "Fake Soir"), which was mixed with official copies of the paper and distributed to news kiosks in Brussels. The "Stolen ''Le Soir''" was notable for including
Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé (; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of Tintin'', ...
's ''
The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 bande dessinée#Formats, ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one ...
'' cartoons in serialized form during the war. The renewed production of the "Free ''Le Soir''", under Lucien Fuss, restarted on 6 September 1944, just days after the Allied Liberation of Brussels. The publisher of the paper is Rossel company.


Circulation

In the period of 1995–96 ''Le Soir'' had a circulation of 182,798 copies. Its 2002 circulation was 130,495 copies with a market share of 20.3%. The circulation of the paper was 104,000 copies in 2003 and 101,000 copies in 2004.


Editorial stance

Compared to its centre-right Catholic competitor, ''
La Libre Belgique ''La Libre Belgique'' (; literally ''The Free Belgium''), currently sold under the name ''La Libre'', is a major daily newspaper in Belgium. Together with ''Le Soir'', it is one of the country's major French language newspapers and is popular in ...
'', ''Le Soir'' is seen as liberal and progressive with politically
federalist The term ''federalist'' describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters called themselves ''Federalists''. History Europe federation In Europe, proponents of de ...
leanings. Reaffirmed on the occasion of the release of the new format on 15 November 2005, ''Le Soir'' describes its editorial stance as "a progressive and independent daily newspaper." It describes its aims to be a "counterweight" and "always alert, in line with society". It describes its role as:


Google controversy

The paper gained some notoriety on the internet after it successfully sued the search engine
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
for
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
infringement. The case was built on the fact that Google made parts of the newspaper's website available through its search engine and its
Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google rel ...
service, even after the articles in question had been removed from the newspaper's website. A Belgian judge ruled that this did not conform to Belgian regulations and ordered Google to remove all "copyright violations" from its websites. Google responded by removing all links to the Belgian newspaper not only from its news service but also from its search index.


''Charlie Hebdo'' bomb threat

In response to the terrorist attack on ''Charlie Hebdo'' in which 12 people died on 7 January 2015, some international organizations such as Reporters Without Borders and the Index on Censorship called for controversial ''
Charlie Hebdo ''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...
'' cartoons to be re-published in solidarity with the French satirical magazine and in defense of free speech. The ''
Hamburger Morgenpost The ''Hamburger Morgenpost'' (Hamburg Morning Post) (also known as Mopo) is a daily German newspaper published in Hamburg in tabloid format. As of 2006 the ''Hamburger Morgenpost'' was the second-largest newspaper in Hamburg after '' Bild Zeitu ...
'' included ''Charlie Hebdo'' cartoons on its front cover on 8 January and was subsequently firebombed. ''Le Soir'' faced bomb threats for republishing ''Charlie Hebdo'' cartoons, including many satirising religion.


See also

*
Philippe Servaty Philippe is a masculine sometimes feminin given name, cognate to Philip. It may refer to: * Philippe of Belgium (born 1960), King of the Belgians (2013–present) * Philippe (footballer) (born 2000), Brazilian footballer * Prince Philippe, Cou ...
* ''
Faux Soir The "''Faux Soir''" was a spoof issue of the newspaper ''Le Soir'' published in German-occupied Belgium on 9 November 1943. It was produced by the Front de l'Indépendance, a faction in the Belgian Resistance, in a satirical style that ridiculed ...
''


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soir 1887 establishments in Belgium French-language newspapers published in Belgium Mass media in Brussels Newspapers established in 1887