Le Point

Le Point ( ; (ISSN 0242-6005) is a French weekly news magazine. It was founded in 1972 by a group of journalists who had, one year earlier, left the editorial team of L'Express, which was then owned by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, a député (member of parliament) of the Parti Radical. The company operating the newspaper, Société d'exploitation de l'hebdomadaire Le Point (SEBDO Le Point) has its head office in the 14th arrondissement of Paris.

Le Point magazine to be sued over racist article on Chinese. A French anti-racism group said it was suing leading magazine Le Point for slurring the country's ethnic Chinese community as stingy money-obsessed workaholics.SOS Racisme said on Monday that a hearing would be held on January 24. The legal action was taken jointly with the AJCF, a body which represents Chinese youths living in France.An article published on August 23 and entitled "The Devious Success of the Chinese in France," was ridden with stereotypes, SOS Racisme said.But Le Point chief Franz Olivier Giesbert defended the article as a humorous piece of writing that had been misconstrued.A boxed text accompanying the article listed the "Five Commandments of the Chinese businessman." These included: "Thou shalt work 80 hours a week", "Thou shalt sleep in thy shop", and "Thou shalt not pay workers.""The article is insulting and degrading," said AJCF spokesman Rui Wang, deploring that Chinese women had been "painted as prostitutes."SOS Racisme also said that racial slurs were cast "under the pretext of humour.""It's always in the form of a joke but one must admit it when the joke exceeds limits," it said.This comes after Chinese organisations staged a protest march last month in Paris over an article on the Chinese mafia that appeared in Le Parisien newspaper which they deemed derogatory.

The editorial team of spring 1972 found financial backing with group Hachette and was then directed by Claude Imbert. Other journalists making up the team were: Jacques Duquesne, Henri Trinchet, Pierre Billard, Robert Franc, Georges Suffert. Management included Olivier Chevrillon, Pdg and Philippe Ramond.

The weekly magazine recruited journalists from the Parisian press and relied on its ability to redefine the genre. It modelled itself closely on magazines owned by News Magazine: Time Magazine and Newsweek. After a fairly difficult start in September 1972, the magazine quickly challenged L'Express. It has changed ownership several times: from Gaumont, and Alcatel it is currently owned by Artémis, a French investment group founded and owned by the billionaire businessman François Pinault.