Le Monde is a French daily newspaper founded by Hubert Beuve-Méry and continuously published in Paris since 1944. It is one of the most important and widely respected newspapers in the world. It reports an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which are sold abroad and it has been available on the Internet since 1995. Since its start, Le Monde has covered national and world news in depth and analysed it closely. Its writers have the freedom to present their own views, with the result that Le Monde reveals no unified policies or consistent ideological outlook. Its independence, which never wavered from its founding, despite early and grave financial worries, has brought it denunciation at one time or another from every part of the French political spectrum.