French Media Urge Macron to Reverse Elysee Palace Eviction Plan

(Bloomberg) -- France’s Presidential Press Association has urged Emmanuel Macron to scrap a plan to evict journalists from the Elysee Palace, saying the move would restrict access to information.

Allowing reporters to maintain a press room in the 18th-century official residence has helped foster “transparency” around the French presidency since the mid-1970s, the association said. A new press center is planned in a nearby street because Macron’s advisers need the space for meetings, government aides said in February when the plan was announced.

“Its closing cannot be seen as anything other than a lock-down of the Elysee and a decision prejudicial to journalists’ freedom to inform and to work,” the association said in a statement Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump reversed a plan to move news briefings out of the White House last year after journalists and the White House press association objected.

To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Iain Rogers, Chris Reiter

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