HUMANIT, L'

daily newspaper published in Paris, the organ of the French Communist Party, and one of the most influential communist papers published in noncommunist countries. It was established in 1904 by the Socialist Jean Jaurs and in 1920 came under the control of the newly organized Communists. As a party organ, L'Humanit has seen its fortunes shift along with those of its parent. In August 1939 it was dissolved along with the party in reaction to the German-Soviet Nonagression Pact. During World War II it was published clandestinely. Immediately after the war, with the Communist Party at its greatest popularity, the paper had a circulation of more than 1,000,000, but within a few years it was publishing fewer than 200,000 copies daily. In the 1950s and later, L'Humanit, which faithfully reflected the line of the Soviet Communist Party, came under pressure for publishing material that was critical of the French government. In 1960, for example, the government of Charles de Gaulle confiscated all copies of the edition carrying an International Red Cross report on atrocities committed in French-run internment camps in Algeria.