Serge Dassault

Serge Dassault is CEO of Dassault, the French arms manufacturer. This company recently bought Socpresse, a major media group in France.

Memorable quotes

"I would hope that , where possible, the newspaper will devote more thought to our commercial interests. In my view, there are sometimes news items that require a lot of caution. For instance, articles that talk about contracts being negotiated. There is some news that does more harm than good. The risk is that it threatens the commercial or industrial interests of our country"

—Le Monde, September 9, 2004. (These statements were made to the editors of Le Figaro by Serge Dassault when he took over the newspaper.

"He set off alarm bells for journalists when he expanded on his reasons for deciding to buy L'Express and Le Figaro. A newspaper, he said, "makes it possible to convey a certain number of healthy ideas… Leftwing idas are non-healthy ideas. Today we're in a mess because of leftwing ideas that are still around."

—Ignacio Ramonet, "Final edition for the press", Le Monde Diplomatique, January 2005.

Related Groups

• Socpresse