LE FIGARO FINALLY APOLOGIZES TO THE SEYCHELLES
(Posted 13th April 2016)
(Seychelles’ Minister for Tourism & Culture Alain St. Ange vigorously defending his country against falsehoods)
Whether it was a conscious lie, a personal vendetta by a disgruntled – and now thoroughly discredited – journalist or just a lapse of judgement or poor research, Le Figaro has finally owned up to their massive Faux Pas and issued a written apology to the Government and People of the Seychelles.
Here is how this story evolved:
On the 11th of October 2014 Le Figaro Magazine published a photo of Trash Island of the Maldives (taken from a report Welcome to Trash Island or Thilafushi, an island landfill made entirely of waste" – http://alisonsadventures.com) on double page spread (Pages 18 & 19) and labeled it as Seychelles. The publishing of this photo named as from the Seychelles caused an outcry from the visitors who enjoy a Seychelles holiday and who took exception at such a false reporting.
This prompted Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture to write to Serge Dassault, the President of Le Figaro Magazine to establish that their published photo had firstly nothing to do with the Seychelles and to state that Le Figaro had acted in a malicious manner with the aim of destroying the Seychelles tourism industry.
In the meantime visitors to Seychelles kept writing and expressing their anger at Le Figaro for the wrong impression they gave with the Trash Island photo.
The Seychelles Ministry of Tourism and Culture followed with a letter to Le Figaro addressed to Francis Morel, the Head of Publication on advice from lawyers in France following which an environmentally friendly photo with a clean white sandy beach and baby turtles was published on the 17th of October 2014. A copy of which was forwarded to PS Anne Lafortune, the PS for Tourism by Soizick de Linares of the Legal Team of the Societe Du Figaro.
‘We are today communicating this because of the number of people still writing to say that they found the photo published by Le Figaro as a false and misleading report. We thank each and everyone who has written in to express their sympathy on what they saw as abuse by the press. We also thank Le Figaro for understanding the mistake they made, a mistake that could impact on the industry that remains the pillar of the Seychelles economy‘ said Minister Alain St.Ange to the press as he explained that Seychelles prides itself on the work in place to safeguard its environment.
‘The Seychelles is today a clear example in the world of environment protection. We have one 50% of our total land area protected as Natural Reserves‘ said the island’s Minister of Tourism and Culture.
If not corrected could this have amounted as an anti travel advisory by falsehood. Find out all about Destination Seychelles via www.seychelles.travel
