French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysee Palace in Paris | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images Emmanuel Macron: French media are ‘totally narcissistic’ French president defends his decision to grant interview to US media before French outlets.

French media are "totally narcissistic," Emmanuel Macron told a press conference in New York on Tuesday.

The French president faced criticism for granting an interview to CNN International ahead of French outlets after his U.N. General Assembly address, Europe 1 reported.

Speaking in English, Macron sat down with journalist Christiane Amanpour for an interview that touched on his diplomatic policy, North Korea and climate change — his first formal English-language interview since acceding to the presidency.

“I am at the United Nations and a journalist offered to do an interview on my diplomatic policy, and I did it," Macron said. "Given the seriousness of the issues, let's talk about the challenges facing the planet and stop talking in such a circular way about communication.”

"When I see the time spent in the past four months commenting only on my silences and my sayings, I think that it is a totally narcissistic system," he said, adding that French outlets appeared to more interested in "communication" than "content."

It's not the first time Macron has hit out at French media.

During his candidacy, he criticized recent presidents of maintaining "too much closeness with journalists." In September, he accused journalists of being "too interested in themselves and not enough in the country."

Macron reversed his communications tactics in August, becoming increasingly open to conducting interviews and addressing the French public directly.

Despite his criticism of French journalists on Tuesday, Macron also used his U.N. address to call for the global protection of journalists “because nothing can justify the reduction of freedom of the press.”