Le Rénovateur

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Le Rénovateur is the only French-language newspaper in the Lao PDR (Laos). It is published weekly.

It was started in 1998, after the communist government decided to start a new policy in order to open the country. It was helped in the beginning by the Agence intergouvernementale de la Francophonie, an international organisation that promotes the French language, especially in Africa and in South-East Asia. Since the newspaper's 200th edition, FrancoNet Canada has helped it to publish on-line. The French Cultural Center of Vientiane pays someone to correct the articles written by Laotian journalists.

Le Rénovateur is sometimes described as a propaganda newspaper by the opposition living abroad. In 2003, Le Rénovateur published an interview with Mr Phivath, the lawyer of Thierry Falise and Vincent Reynaud, European journalists arrested because they were investigating reports of the war between the Laotian Army and the country's Hmong tribespeople in the jungle of Saysomboun special zone. The interviews were censored, but received the Prix de la libre expression (Free-Speech Prize), given by the Union de la Presse Francophone.

Also in 2003, Le Rénovateur published stories about working in garment sweat shops, film censorship at the beginning of the socialist revolution, and the difficulties of being gay in Vientiane.

Created by Soumsanouk Mixay, the newspaper was taken over Savankhone Razmountry in 2003. The chief editor is Khamphout Xayasomroth.