French press review 14 November 2013

Racism is making front-page news this morning. One paper pays homage to photography ... by not printing any photos. Changes to school hours spark protest. And the court case over a tragic hotel fire eight years ago starts.

"Enough" screams Libération's main headline, in a giant type size most papers would reserve for announcing the end of the world. The latest chapter in the racist saga concerns Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, recently the victim of an attack by a right-wing magazine.

The magazine's editor has accepted that a headline involving Taubira, monkeys and bananas showed a lack of good taste but he denies any intention to offend. The same can certainly not be said of far-right Front National member Anne-Sophie Leclere, who told a meeting on 17 October that she would rather see the justice minister in a tree than in government.

Where does satire end and racist insult begin, wonders the Libération editorial? In fact, says the left-wing paper, there is no borderline: race is not a subject for jokes, hiding behind the claim of satire is just adding injury to insult, this has to stop.

Le Monde devotes an editorial to the same question, saying there is no acceptable level of racist remark, no context in which a person's human dignity can legitimately be undermined.

Back to Libé and that publication's strange way of marking today's opening of Paris Photo, a four-day celebration of the camera as wielded by journalists, fashion followers, designers, artists.

In honour of the event, Libé paradoxically offers readers a photo-free edition. The white spaces normally occupied by the pictures are there but that's all. Just white space. A way of reminding us, perhaps of the communicative power of the printed image.

Catholic La Croix wonders why so many people are up in arms against the government's efforts to change the shape of the week for the nation's junior school children.

Since September about one-fifth of French schoolkids have lost the traditional Wednesday morning lie-in. They now have to attend school every day of the week, although the days are shorter. This seemed like a sensible response to the general view that the old system put too much strain on young minds. But parent groups, teachers and even urban officials are up in arms.

The most substantial bone of contention seems to be that the project was pushed through too rapidly, without a real examination of all the consequences. Some teachers are on strike today in support of their demand for more consultation before the five-day school week becomes a national phenomenon. That's scheduled for next September.

Communist L'Humanité looks back eight years for its main story: the tragic deaths of 24 immigrants in a fire in the centre of Paris in a building clearly unsuited to the purpose of lodging large numbers of very poor people. Nothing less than the housing policy of the social security authorities is on trial, it says.

Four people face trial today for their alleged responsibility for the blaze.