A longtime journalist and editor at Agence France-Presse (AFP), she was its global news director from 2014 to 2019, when she became a member of the French Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel.
Michèle Léridon was born in Canteleu, the daughter of a physician and a radiologist, and was educated at the Lycée du Parc Chabrières [fr] in Ouillins.
She earned degrees in economics from the Lumière University Lyon 2 and in journalism from the Centre de formation des journalistes in Paris.
[3] She subsequently worked in other managerial positions including as chief of the Rome bureau, and in 2014 became global news director, also the first woman to hold that post.
[2][3][4] In early 2019 she was appointed to the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel, the regulator of electronic media in France, where she headed the working group on rights and liberties, pluralism and professional ethics,[4] and was influential in shaping policy on social media and other online platforms and combatting disinformation.