The Minister of Culture Rachida Dati returned to the reform of public broadcasting at the end of the Council of Ministers which was exceptionally held this Friday, May 31 in the morning. The text must be examined in the coming weeks in the Senate and it plans to bring together all public service radio and television stations in the same holding company. All except those of France Médias Monde, France 24 and RFI. In any case, this is the preferred hypothesis at this stage according to Rachida Dati.
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This Friday morning, after leaving the Council of Ministers, Rachida Dati returned to her vision of public broadcasting and said she wanted to act in transparency. His ambition: “Qthat the audiovisual sector once again becomes this common cultural heritage “. For the minister, audiovisual must be aimed at everyone. All social categories combined. “ I am told to return to the ORTF. Sorry, I may shock you, but what did that do? When you have a worker parent who watched “The Screen Files”, that the next day, he could talk to his boss in his factory about the screen file because he had watched it. Don’t you think it’s very strong to have a common culture? A common heritage? You are not from comparable social categories, but you could discuss things that connect you,” she detailed. “ The less you have a common strategy, the less effective you are, and the less I look at you and listen to you “, she summarized.
Concerning France Médias Monde, Rachida Dati estimated that its place in this project should be debated in the hemicycle while admitting that in a context of strong geopolitical tensions, France Médias Monde, which includes France 24, RFI and Monte Carlo Doualiya, had a ” specific mission “.
I consider that she [France Médias Monde] has a specific mission to carry democratic and republican values throughout the world. That should also be its mission. So today, the subject is indeed that it is not part of the perimeter. This is an issue for everyone. We will have this debate again in the hemicycle…
Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture
For several months, the merger of public broadcasting has been on the political agenda of Gabriel Attal’s government. Since taking office, the Minister of Culture has indeed accelerated the pace and said she wanted “ gather strength » of public broadcasting from France Télévisions, Radio France, Ina (National Audiovisual Institute) and France Médias Monde (RFI, France 24).
But the integration of this last group did not seem to be to the taste of everyone in the government since the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, spoke out against. “ I am, and we are in favor of excluding external audiovisual from what is currently in preparation “, he declared on May 15 before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.
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On Wednesday, an online petition, to mobilize against the reform wanted by the government, was posted online. This, written by audiences and staff from France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde and Ina as well as by citizens, now exceeds 10,972 signatures and is supported by numerous personalities. The signatories believe that “ with this merger, we risk losing a plurality of points of view, an editorial wealth so precious to the democratic life of the country. There is an obvious risk of impoverishment and smoothing of content. We are already seeing in small steps, under the effect of the ongoing rapprochements, the beginning of standardization. Don’t continue on this path “.
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