A open letter is a text which, although addressed to one or more people in particular, is publicly exhibé in order to be read by a broader group. With this intention, it is generally the press which is used like media, but an open letter can also take the form of a Publication with whole share, of a Affiche, a Tract, or more recently be put on line on Internet, etc

Even if it is not necessarily the case, a copy of this text can in parallel be dispatched in private by the postal system , following the example usual Courrier. The interest of this sending remains however limited, the goal of an open letter being less to obtain an answer of its recipient, to propagate his opinions near the public which is exposed there. Indeed, the your is generally polemical, and the open letter approaches more article engaged, leading or Pamphlet, that traditional letter. One still moves away from there when the recipients are not designated by name, but identified by a formulation from the type “to all those which… ”. An open letter can also be Co-signed, being connected then with a petition.

The recipients are often persons in charge Politique S, but one can find open letters in other fields, for example in scientific magazines on questions of ethical.

Certain open letters passed to the posterity, such as the I show written by the writer Emile Zola for the President of the Republic Felix Faure, and published in the newspaper the Dawn of the January 13rd 1898: into full Business Dreyfus, it takes there the defense of this officer condemned for treason.

The Letter patent is the shape of open letter: it is about an official document which, in addition to being sent by a Gouvernement to the one of its managed, can also be read by any interested person.

An open letter written by the pope is called apostolic Lettre.