French media warned not to republish Macron campaign’s leaked documents

Paris, May 6 (IANS) The French electoral commission, which supervises the country's presidential race, on Saturday warned the media not to republish data and information hacked from centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign staff.

The commission in a statement asked the media not to report the content of the leaked documents on their websites, stressing that publishing false information would be punished under criminal law, Xinhua news agency reported.

Late on Friday, Macron's campaign team said it had been the victim of a "massive and coordinated hacking attack", leading to the posting of "various internal information" on social media.

The leaked documents only showed the normal functioning of a presidential campaign, it said.

However, the files posted online mixed authentic documents with fake ones to sow "doubt and misinformation", according to Macron's En Marche! (On the Move!) party.

The alleged hacking of the leading political party in the presidential race came on the eve of the election's run-off on Sunday.

Pollsters predict that Macron will defeat far-right rival Marine Le Pen by a large margin.

In February, Macron's staff said their campaign had been the target of cyber attacks targeting databases and e-mail servers.