36

Paradoxical situation of Agence France-presse during the Algerian war: while freedom of the press was sorely violated in France, it was granted a liberal status. In 1957, it stopped being a public establishment under tight guardianship of the state, as the founding ordinance stipulated on September 30, 1944, and became an organization with characteristics of a business, an official agency and a press cooperative. This change brought about a noticeable difference in the coverage of the Algerian war, a particularly delicate subject. The tone was highly official at the beginning, but more and more space was given over to the activities and men of the FLN and the GPRA, and then the OAS. The AFP’s coverage of the war thus became more balanced. At the same time, the head of the Agency (1954-1975), Jean Marin, used his journalist’s aura and political relations to negotiate greater margins of manœuvre when faced with the permanent temptation of the authorities to control the AFP.