Student protests, police violence and French media obsessed with ‘barbarians’.
What began as protests over education has rapidly taken over the streets of France and turned into one of the country’s biggest waves of unrest in years.
Many mainstream media outlets have focused their coverage on the violence and looting rather than on the demands of the demonstrators. A lot of airtime has fixated on who the protesters are and what they look like, often using racist terms. That narrative has been picked up by right-wing movements abroad.
Contributors:
Cole Stangler – author, Paris Is Not Dead, and lecturer, American College of the Mediterranean
Diane de Vignemont – Paris-based journalist
Harrison Stetler – lecturer and writer
Philippe Marliere – professor of French and European politics, University College London
On our radar
Israel’s elections are just days away and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reverted to a familiar alarmist tactic to consolidate support: hyping an “imminent” threat from Iran and telling the United States that it should “finish the job”. Meenakshi Ravi looks at the messaging.
Olga Rudenko: Independent journalism is the ‘ultimate patriotic act’
More than four and a half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine remains under attack, and its journalists are forced to balance many responsibilities at once.
They are documenting a war that has become more dangerous than ever, countering Russian propaganda efforts and trying to hold their own government to account at a time when the news media have been expected to fall into line. The Kyiv Independent, an online newspaper, has been doing all three since 2021.
The Listening Post spoke with its editor-in-chief and cofounder Olga Rudenko about the pressures of reporting when your country is at war.
Featuring:
Olga Rudenko – editor-in-chief, The Kyiv Independent
Published On 25 Oct 2026
