April 14, 2002	Sunday	Muharram 30, 1423

PARIS, April 13: Irate readers have accused the influential Paris daily Le Monde of undermining the French language and bowing to Americanization by printing a weekly supplement of New York Times articles in English.

Le Monde’s ombudsman Robert Sole wrote in the Saturday edition, the same one containing the 12-page Times supplement, that letters to the editor about it had been mostly negative.

This appeared to contradict a marketing survey Le Monde made last August in which 59 per cent of those questioned said they would be interested in the supplement in English. Readers between 15 and 24 years old were especially enthusiastic.

“This is the wrong way to be open to the world, it’s a self-enslavement, participation in the Americanization of France,” wrote Albert Salon, president of the International Francophone Forum, a group that defends the French language.

Noting that the Times was not publishing Le Monde articles in French, another reader wrote: “You shouldn’t be surprised that the Americans treat us with such condescension.”—Reuters