La Voix Libre (1929-1932)

La Voix Libre, with the slogan "Organe de defense de tout Francais contre l'arbitraire et le favoritisme" features articles catering to the upper-class French of Saigon. It is peppered with luxurious advertisements for expensive wines, beers, cruises and upscale pharmacies. Many of the advertisements depict indigenous Vietnamese people in a highly stylized and racist manner. Their features are exaggerated and they wear stereotypical clothing. The advertisements clearly appeal to rich French citizens living in Vietnam, and as a journalism major I realize that the content of advertisements often reveals a publication's target audience.

A significant feature of the content of the paper is its extensive coverage of economic affairs in Saigon--reports of bank taxes and revenues from rice production comprise a considerable portion of the articles. Also covered are results of Saigon elections, and all candidates have French last names. This is reflective of the political control of Vietnam by the French at this time. Recordings of departures and arrivals of ships to and from France also emphasize the thoroughly Western audience of the journal.

Another article reports a new Japanese technology that may make electricity less expensive: "Dans tout le Japon, les compagnies d'eclairage electrique continuent a diminuer leurs prix: a la suite des manifestations populaires, la ville de Tokyo a officiellement requis la compagnie du gaz de reduire ses prix."

In the 1920s in Vietnam, I doubt electricity was commonplace for members of the lower-income community. The paper's interest in such an expensive technological resource is also reflective of its audience, upper-class French businessmen with money to spend on high-tech luxuries.

To summarize, I surmise based on its advertisements and content (business and politics) that "La Voix Libre" is geared toward members of the higher social classes of Vietnam. Because the text is all in French (no Vietnamese articles can be found anywhere in the paper), it is also evident that the journal is read mainly by the French or "westernized" Vietnamese--more evidence that the paper was written for the colonizers rather than the colonized.