Le Canard enchaîné Free Man") which was forced to close by government censorship and reacted upon its reopening by changing its name to "L'homme enchaîné" ("The Chained-up Man"); "Le Canard enchaîné" means "The chained-up duck", but "canard" (duck) is also French slang for "newspaper"; it was also a reference to French journals published by soldiers during World War I. The weekly was founded in 1915 by and his wife , along with H. P. Gassier. It changed its title briefly after World War I to "Le Canard Déchaîné" ("The duck unbound", or "out of control"), to celebrate the end of military censorship of
Le Canard enchaîné considered one of (if not the) most objective French publications—hence its continued existence. It has a limited web presence, dependent, as it is, on selling a printed product. Despite declining newspaper circulations in France, and elsewhere, "Canard" is rich and growing. It owns cash reserves and property holdings worth 110 million euros. It runs cheaply and profitably, restricting itself to eight pages of two-color newsprint each week. Circulation has risen by a third since 2007 and its scandal-fuelled growth has seen a rise to 700,000 copies being printed and sold each week. Its net profit in 2009 was 5 million