Seven hundred and fifty community radio stations benefit from the Local Radio Expression Support Fund (FSER), on average up to 40% of their resources. The blow announced Thursday by Rachida Dati casts a chill.
In the premises of Euradio Nantes, an associative radio school, created in 2005 which covers local and European news by integrating trainees and volunteers from across the continent. Théophile Trossat for Télérama
Couple Sophie Gindensperger
Published on October 11, 2024 at 5:35 p.m.
Updated October 11, 2024 at 7:29 p.m.
Dcold shoulder for community radio stations: the finance bill announced Thursday by the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati plans to withdraw 29% of aid from the Local Radio Expression Support Fund (FSER), taking it from 35 million euros in 2024 to 24 million in 2025.
“It’s a sledgehammer,” says Jean-Marc Courrèges-Cénac, co-president of the Les Locales association, which represents the National Confederation of Associative Radios (CNRA) and the National Union of Free Radios (SNRL). “There are choices that question us. Our radios play an essential role in our democracy and in territorial cohesion. We talk a lot about the importance of plurality, the diversity of the radio landscape, and we ultimately see that it is being undermined. It undermines all the work we do on a daily basis, giving a voice to those who are often deprived of it, and relaying the work of local actors and elected officials. » A 35% drop in this fund could “endanger between 70 and 80% of community radio stations”, he assures, the economy of the sector is already very fragile.
“Proximity social communication mission”
Created in 1982, the FSER concerns around seven hundred and fifty community radio stations, for which this aid represents on average 40% of their resources. To be eligible, stations must not have commercial resources greater than 20% of their turnover. The fund aims to enable these local structures to ensure “their mission of local social communication with the territories”. This mission involves in particular encouraging the expression of different socio-cultural currents, supporting local development, protecting the environment and even the fight against exclusion.
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This surprise measure also directly contradicts the announcement made recently by the Ministry of Culture – as part of the “Culture and rurality” plan – of“increase support for rural and overseas community radio stations”, and which precisely proposed a bonus of around 10,000 euros per station for the two hundred and twenty antennas concerned.
In recent years, community radio stations have had to face the disappearance of subsidized contracts, but also bear the cost of double broadcasting with the launch of digital terrestrial radio, which, as long as it is not completely generalized (it should be in 2033), still involves broadcasting at the same time on FM and DAB+, two broadcasting methods which require different infrastructures. The associative branches, however, have not said their last word: they intend to mobilize and bring their cause to the ears of local parliamentarians, hoping that amendments can still change the situation.
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