French press review 9 September 2015

Paris lays down criteria for the selection of a French quota of asylum seekers. Kinshasa bans a picture of an acclaimed medic who exposed the scale of sexual violence in the DRC; and  Queen Elizabeth's record-breaking reign hits 63 years and 216 days on the British throne.

DR

The plight of refugees streaming into Europe from the Middle and Far East continues to dominate the news. Le Figaro welcomes the pledge by the 56 countries present at Tuesday’s Paris conference to step up assistance to the Christian minorities persecuted by the Islamic State armed group in the Middle East.

This is after stakeholders agreed on an emergency action plan on how to halt the massacre and ethnic cleansing taking place, as well as the degrading treatment of Christians, especially of Yazidi women exchanged and sold as sex slaves to the jihadists controlling large portions of Iraq and Syria.

The parties agreed to go beyond humanitarian assistance to the hoards of refugees streaming out of the region. At the meeting France pledged 25 million euros for the coalition’s emergency fund, with member countries agreeing to hold their next meeting in Spain on a date to be determined.

Libération criticises the decision by the Congolese government to ban the screening in Kinshasa of a landmark picture about the celebrated gynaecologist Denis Mukwege who spent the past 15 years treating scores of women raped during the DRC’s brutal regional civil war.

The paper reports that the documentary entitled "L’Homme qui Répare les Femmes: la Colère d’Hypocrate" had been due to be aired at the French Institute in Kinshasa on Tuesday and Wednesday, but that DRC’s communications minister censored the event claiming that “there was a deliberate intention to smear the image of the Congolese army at levels unacceptable to any other country”.

Thierry Michel, a co-author of the documentary, told Libé that the ban constituted an act of intimidation on the part a government feeling uneasy about the scale of sexual violence and impunity in the country.

Today’s L’Humanité takes up shocking revelations by renowned French economists about how money is causing disparities in the French education system. Economics professor Arnaud Parienty demonstrates in his newly published book titled "School Business" that the schools reputed for producing the country’s business and civil service elite are all based in Paris and within a surface area of just 2.5km, where money and position remain the determining factors to getting admitted.

Professor Parienty says admissions into the schools are so difficult that a select club of 15,000 families spent close to 8.5 million euros in 2014 to hire private coaches to prepare their children for entrance examinations into these schools.

L’Humanité identifies Academia as one of the firms which have made millions from the school support business. The company now quoted on the stock exchange has amassed a capital of 44 million euros after a few years in the business, according to the newspaper.

Several French papers mark the long reign of her Majesty the Queen, aged 89, who overtook her mother as the longest ever reigning monarch. Le Figaro says her 63 years and 216 days on the British throne means that she has beaten the record set by her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria and Britain’s longest serving monarch of all time.

According to the paper, Her Royal Majesty’s endurance is not only a source of pride to the British people but also the architect of government stability.

Libération also pays tribute to “England’s Mathusalem”, who saw 12 prime ministers settle in No 10 Downing Street and nine French presidents in the Elysée as she established her stature as a totem of a nostalgic nation sticking to its traditions.