French journalist ban at FN youth camp provokes media boycott

Front National leader Marine Le Pen gave her first political speech of the new year on Sunday, but few journalists were there to listen to it.

By the time Le Pen mounted the podium in the south-west town of Frejus, many journalists had already packed up and left, depriving her of valuable media spotlight. This, because her Public relations team the day before, had excluded a journalist from online newspaper Mediapart.

Speaking at a press conference, outcast Marine Turchi explained how she was "thrown out" of the youth summer university shortly after coming back from lunch. "Guards escorted me out and asked me to give back my pass, following me right up to the door," she said.

Hours earlier however, the party's secretary general Steeve Briois made an announcement urging members "not to be selective."

The Front National blames Turchi's eviction on a "logistical" problem. But the head of its youth wing, Julien Rochedy, claims he received specific orders from management not to let Marine Turchi back in.

The Front National has been weary of Mediapart ever since it decided to unplug coverage on Marine Le Pen in the last presidential election.

On Sunday, several journalists from top media houses such as AFP, Le Monde, and Radio France International, decided to boycott them.