Editorials on Russia published by the French newspaper, Le Monde, during the first months of the second Chechen war (August 1999—March 2000) are analysed within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. A new linguistic model of analysis is proposed for the study of the various texts taken as an entity. Its application results in a three-dimensional synthesis of the editorials that brings to the fore their premises. It appears that Le Monde's discourse on human rights belongs to a discourse of French national identity whose roots can be found in the 18th century. Journalists from three Russian dailies (Izvestija, Segodnja, Nezavisimaja Gazeta) seem to have perceived this discourse as a media war against their own national identity. The analysis explains how Le Monde's comments on the humanitarian situation in Chechnya could have resulted in such an intercultural impasse. The question of the role of human rights discourse in a `globalizing' world is raised.
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