French press review 7 August 2013

A newspaper reveals more details about Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alleged aggravated pimping, the sale of a major US newspaper creates media buzz, and warnings about buying medicines online. 

The right-wing daily Le Figaro reports Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former president of the International Monetary Fund, will face trial again very soon.

After two years of investigation in the Carlton hotel affair, an alleged prostitution ring run out of luxury hotels in Lille in northern France, judges have ordered Strauss-Kahn to stand trial.

Strauss-Kahn will have to answer new accusations of aggravated pimping, explains the paper, which has had access to the court order outlining the reasons for the trial.

The judges describe a “party king”, guilty of pimping, reports the daily, as Strauss-Kahn was reportedly responsible for organising the pleasure parties in the Carlton hotel in Lille.

The judges also accuse Strauss-Kahn of trying to cover up his tracks when the French justice system started looking into his activities, reports the paper.

A day after Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, bought the Washington Post newspaper, left-wing Libération leads with a report on the buyout and wonders if the written press, considered as dying by many, may actually be a good investment.

Bezos bought the prestigious daily, a pillar of American History, for “only” $250 million, or 188 million euros, writes the paper, as a kind of homage of the new economy to an historical actor of American political life.

Looking back at the history of the Washington Post since its creation in 1877, Libération explains how the paper became a monument, if not a legend, in the media world, although its sales have gone down 14% over the past 3 years.

To this day, journalists from the Post are still digging up exclusive stories, explains Libération.

The paper also draws a portrait of Bezos, who is still quite unknown to the public, and how the man from Seattle, who dreamed of space and shuttles, led the e-commerce revolution with Amazon.

According to Françoise Benhamou, a media specialist interviewed by the French daily, Bezos’ decision to buy the Post is not surprising at all. Buying the Post, she says, is buying economic, political and societal power.

The main story in today’s edition of the popular daily Aujourd’hui en France focuses on newly launched online pharmacy websites in France, and how abuses and misuse are already being reported.

Counterfeit products, questionable websites...less than a month and a half after the government authorised the online sale of medicine, eleven websites are already under scrutiny, reports the daily.

The French Order of Pharmacists has decided to sue websites advertising themselves as French dispensaries when, in fact, they are based in Belgium or Russia, the paper explains.

Aujourd’hui en France also gives its readers advice on how to efficiently and, most of all, safely, buy medicine online.

These include checking the French Order of Pharmacists website for information, checking the legal and contact information for the website, and even paying attention to spelling and grammar errors, as online crooks are often not the best spellers.