Libération (French pronunciation: [libeʁɑsjɔ̃] ⓘ), popularly known as Libé (pronounced [libe]), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968.

Initially positioned on the far left of France's political spectrum, the editorial line evolved towards a more centre-left stance at the end of the 1970s,[2] where it remains as of 2012.

[4] Edouard de Rothschild's acquisition of a 37% capital interest in 2005,[5] and editor Serge July's campaign for the "yes" vote in the referendum establishing a Constitution for Europe the same year,[6] alienated it from a number of its left-wing readers.

[10] Libération was founded by Jean-Paul Sartre, Philippe Gavi, Bernard Lallement, Jean-Claude Vernier, Pierre Victor alias Benny Lévy and Serge July and was first published on 3 February 1973,[11] in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968.

[13] The paper was initially run along non-hierarchical lines, with all staff – from the editor-in-chief to the janitor – receiving the same salary, but this later gave way to a "normal set-up".

In the early 1980s it began to take advertisements and allowed external bodies to have a stake in its financing, which it had completely refused before, but continued to maintain a left leaning[11] editorial stance.

[15] According to co-founder and former director Serge July, Libé was an activist newspaper that, however, does not support any particular political party, acts as a counter-power, and generally has bad relations with both left-wing and right-wing administrations.

An example of their proclaimed independent, "counter-power" slant is when in 1993 Libération leaked Socialist president François Mitterrand's illegal wiretapping program.

[18] In June 2015, Libération, working with WikiLeaks, reported that the United States National Security Agency had been secretly spying on the telephone conversations of presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande from at least 2006 through 2012.

[19][20] In 2005 Libération badly needed funds,[21] and Serge July strove to convince the board to allow Édouard de Rothschild[21] to buy a stake in the paper.

[25] A debate between Bernard Lallement, the first administrator-manager of Libération and Edouard de Rothschild took place in Le Monde newspaper.