The Sydney Morning Herald

Prominent columnists and journalists who write for The Sydney Morning Herald include Robert Manne, Doug Anderson, Paul Sheehan, Anthony Dennis, Mark Riley, Miranda Devine, Adele Horin, Michael Idato, Julia Baird, Mike Carlton, Gerard Henderson, Alan Ramsey, Peter FitzSimons, David Marr, Roy Masters, Keith Austin, Deborah Smith, Maggie Alderson and Richard Glover. In a referendum on July 6, 2003, a narrow majority of Corsican voters opposed a project from the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy that would have suppressed the two départements of the island and granted greater autonomy to the territorial collectivity of Corsica. It also owns various other newspapers and magazines throughout Australia and New Zealand, including The Age (a similar broadsheet newspaper published in Melbourne). However, the plans for increased autonomy were opposed by the Gaullist opposition in the French National Assembly, who feared that they would lead to calls for autonomy from other régions (such as Brittany or Alsace), eventually threatening France's unity as a country. The company also owns the The Sun-Herald, the Sunday counterpart to the Herald, and a number of community newspapers in Sydney. According to the UNESCO classification, the Corsican language is currently in danger of becoming extinct. It is currently controlled by John Fairfax Holdings. The proposed autonomy for Corsica would have included greater protection for the Corsican language (Corsu), the island's traditional language (which is also considered to be a dialect of Italian), whose practice and teaching, like other regional or minority languages in France, had in the past been discouraged.

The Fairfax family owned the newspaper for 149 years but lost control of it on December 11, 1990 following financial misadventure of Warwick Fairfax. In 2000, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin agreed to grant increased autonomy to Corsica in exchange for an end to violence. We have no wish to mislead; no interest to gratify by unsparing abuse or indiscriminate approbation.". It is sometimes suggested that such behavior could be directly related to longstanding cultural traditions of banditry in the rugged interior of the island. Its editorial policies were based "upon principles of candour, honesty and honour. Prosecutions are made difficult by a pervasive "law of silence". It became a daily newspaper in 1840, and in 1842 changed its name to The Sydney Morning Herald. Journalists writing articles critical of the armed groups have sometimes been threatened.

A decade later it was bought by Charles Kemp and John Fairfax. Non-Corsican homeowners may be threatened with the destruction of their home, able to be avoided only through paying a ransom. The paper was named after Scotland's Glasgow Herald, and was founded by three Englishmen, Alfred Stephens, Frederick Stokes and William McGarvie. Some of the independence groups are known to practice extortion and other intimidatory tactics, not dissimilar from mafia activity in Sicily and southern Italy. It only had four pages and a circulation of 750 copies. Recent attacks on Muslims have reinforced this opinion. The Sydney Morning Herald began its life as a weekly newspaper, the Sydney Herald. However, events such as the murder of préfet Claude Érignac on February 6, 1998 (for which Yvan Colonna was arrested five years later) have only served to convince many in Corsica, as well as in the French government and the general French public, that Corsican nationalists cannot be trusted with more autonomy.

Since the advent of the Internet, the Herald has developed an comprehensive online presence with all major news stories available for online viewing and retained online for some time. The peaceful occupation of a pied-noir vineyard in Aléria in 1975 marked a turning point when the French government responded with overwhelming force, generating sympathy for the independence groups among the Corsican population. Tabloid newspapers, such as its competitor The Daily Telegraph, are considerably smaller, with each page having a size of approximately A3. Some groups who claim to support Corsican independence have carried out a violent campaign since the 1970s that includes bombings and a few assassination attempts, usually targeting pieds-noirs and other non-Corsicans, or buildings and officials representing the French government. The Herald is a broadsheet, meaning that each page is approximately A2 in size. There is support on the island for proposals of greater autonomy, but polls show that a large majority of Corsican are opposed to full independence. Column 8 is another long-running institution. The French government is opposed to full independence, as it would threaten France's unity, but has at times shown support for some level of autonomy.

The cryptic crossword in the Sydney Morning Herald is popular. Generally speaking, autonomist proposals focus on the promotion of the Corsican language, more power for local governments, and some exemptions from national taxes in addition to those already applying to Corsica. It also produces two colour magazines, the weekly Good Weekend, and the monthly the(sydney)magazine. There are several movements on the island calling for some degree of Corsican autonomy from France, or even full independence. They currently include a motoring section, Drive, a food and lifestyle section, Good Living, a property section, Domain, and a television section, The Guide. Corsica is currently governed almost as any other région of France, as explained in the introduction. The Sydney Morning Herald publishes a number of daily sections, as large-format magazines, some of which have been part of the newspaper's infrastructure for more than two decades. Tourism is particularly concentrated in the area around Porto Vecchio and Bonifacio in the south of the island and Calvi in the northwest.

Like The Age, the demographics of its readers are more attractive to many advertisers than its tabloid competitor. However, the island has not had the same level of intensive development as other parts of the Mediterranean and is thus relatively unspoiled. In the coverage of Fairfax's business affairs, this revenue has often been referred to as "rivers of gold". The island's pleasant climate, beautiful mountains and breathtaking coastlines make it a popular destination among the French and other Western Europeans. The Saturday edition of the Herald carries a massive classified section - a popular selling point and a powerful source of cash revenue for the company. Tourism plays a major role in the Corsican economy. The Herald sells 375,000 copies to the Telegraph's 345,000. A local referendum held in 2003, aimed at disbanding the départements and leaving only the territorial collectivity with extended powers, was voted down by a narrow margin.

The Saturday editions of both papers are more closely matched. Recent attempts to gain greater autonomy for the territorial collectivity of Corsica have failed. Its circulation is smaller than the Telegraph; according to circulation data published in the first half of 2004, the Herald sells about 221,000 copies per weekday compared to around 409,000 copies of the Telegraph. These two départements were created on September 15, 1975 by splitting the hitherto united département of Corse. The Fairfax papers (the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age), seen as centrist, are often contrasted with the News Limited papers (The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun), which tend to be more right-leaning, and "the Fairfax press" is often used pejoratively by conservative commentators. The territorial collectivity is divided in two départements: Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse. Historically the paper was characterised as a right of centre, old-school conservative organ of the Establishment, providing a counter-point within Fairfax's holdings to the liberal Melbourne Age, especially during David Syme's tenure as editor of the latter, and it did not editorialise in favour of Labor at a state election until 2003. The capital of the territorial collectivity of Corsica is Ajaccio (Corsican: Aiacciu).

The Herald attempts to maintain editorial balance, with both left leaning contributors like David Marr and cartoonist Michael Leunig, and conservative writers such as Miranda Devine and Gerard Henderson. In an attempt to do so, Napoleon's parents travelled to court in France, and, like many other Corsican nobles, sent their son to school there. It is often seen as the paper of the educated middle class. Corsica was under French control at the time, and Corsican nobles were offered the ability to gain French titles if they could prove their genealogy sufficiently. The Sydney Morning Herald is recorded as being read by a stronger representation of the so-called, "AB demographic", (the highest demographic in terms of education, income and occupation) than its main competitor, the only other major daily newspaper in Sydney, the Murdoch-owned The Daily Telegraph. Corsica is also the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was born in Ajaccio, into minor Corsican nobility. . It was essentially with him that the Moor's head ("Testa Maura") became Corsica's emblem in 1760, hearking back to the period when Corsica had been controlled by Moors (850 to 1034).

Since then, over 51,000 editions have been produced. An important figure in Corsican history is Pasquale Paoli (1725-1807), the Corsican general and patriot who struggled for Corsican independence, first against Genoa, then against France. It is also the oldest Australian newspaper, having been continuously published since 1831. The city state of Genoa held sway over the island for centuries before ceding Corsica to France in 1768 to help pay off a debt. The Sydney Morning Herald is a major Australian broadsheet newspaper published daily in Australia's oldest and most populous city, Sydney. During those times, possible unification with the neighbouring island of Sardinia was seen as a dangerous eventuality by many European states, because it would have given the ruler of the islands a dominant position in the Mediterranean Sea. Because of the strategic position it occupies in the Mediterranean, Corsica has long been considered significant as a platform for military operations, particularly during the several centuries of violent conflict between Italy and France.

Two endangered subspecies of hoofed mammals, the mouflon (Ovis aries musimon) and Corsican red deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus) inhabit the island; the Corsican red deer is endemic. This park is protected and cannot be reached on foot, but sumptuous sails are available in order to discover unique landscapes. The park was created in 1972 and includes the Golfe de Porto, the Réserve Naturelle de Scandola (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and some of the highest mountains on the island. The island has a natural park (Parc Naturel Régional de Corse), which protects thousands of rare animal and plant species.

Much of the coastal lowlands has been cleared for agriculture, and grazing and logging have reduced the mountain forests considerably. The mountains are cooler and wetter, and home to the Corsican montane broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion, which support diverse forests of oak, pine, and broadleaf deciduous trees, with vegetation more typical of northern Europe on the slopes of the highest peaks. The coastal lowlands are part of the Tyrrhenian-Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests ecoregion, in which forests and woodlands of evergreen sclerophyll oaks predominate, chiefly Holm Oak (Quercus ilex) and Cork Oak (Quercus suber). The natural vegetation was Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrub.

The island has a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. Other towns and villages:. Main towns: (Corsican names). The island is separated from Sardinia by the Strait of Bonifacio.

Corsica has 1,000km of coastline and more than 200 beaches, as well as being largely mountainous, with Monte Cinto as the highest peak at 2706m and 50 other summits of more than 2000m. . Corsica is famed as the birthplace of Napoléon Bonaparte. Although the island is separated from the continental mainland by the Ligurian Sea, politically Corsica is considered part of Metropolitan France.

Corsica is referred to as a "région" in common speech, and is almost always listed among the other régions of France. As a territorial collectivity, it enjoys powers slightly more important than other French régions, but for the most part its status is quite similar to the status of the other French régions. Corsica is one of the 26 régions of France, although strictly speaking Corsica is called a "territorial collectivity" (collectivité territoriale) by law. It is located west of Italy, southeast of France, and north of the island of Sardinia.

Corsica (French: Corse; Corsican: Corsica) is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily, Sardinia, and Cyprus).