Rachida Dati took over the file brought out by Franck Riester, which had been buried by the pandemic: the Minister of Culture is determined to carry out the public broadcasting merger project. The merger of France Télévisions, Radio France and INA will result in the creation of a new position, that of CEO of this new group. This president and CEO of this holding company will be appointed for five years by Arcom. Knowing that the president is himself appointed by the President of the Republic, this merger project is enormously contested by the three entities concerned, especially since the government’s objective is to put this merger in place before the start of the 2027 presidential campaign. Note that the Assembly refused to allow the CEO to be appointed by decree of the President of the Republic.
A “democratic risk”
If France Télévisions, Radio France and INA are intended to become three distinct subsidiaries of this single group and to be managed by three different general directors, the employees formally refuse to have a common president. This Wednesday, May 22, 2024, Le Monde published a column signed by 1,100 Radio France employees who are concerned about the risk of “place public radio and television in a situation of direct dependence on political power“.”We fear for the independence of your public service media when we appoint, for this superstructure, a single CEO, with full powers“, add the employees, among whom are famous journalists and presenters like Léa Salamé, Nagui, Sonia Devillers and Nicolas Demorand who are officially taking a position against this proposed merger of public broadcasting.
An economic risk
To raise awareness of this “above all democratic risk“, the letter justifies: “Remember, the abolition of the fee was voted on one summer, almost without debate. Since then, the financing of public broadcasting is no longer protected, and therefore no longer guaranteed“. As for the economic measure arguments which have always struggled to convince, the employees recall: “The creation of a single company will be very expensive (…) The merger of the regions in 2016 did not reduce the budget of these communities, on the contrary“. Our colleagues from Le Parisien also write: “the mere alignment of Radio France’s salary scales with those of France Télévisions, which are better equipped, could, for example, cost “between 30 and 50 million euros per year“.
10 unions and 5 former ministers of Culture mobilized
Another risk is highlighted, that of “to always see the same faces, to always hear the same voices delivering the same content recycled indifferently on TV, on the radio and on the Web. Add to this the desire to remove the cap on advertising on Radio France channels, and we will see advertising revenues dictate our program choices and our podcast offerings.“. Judge “demagogic, ineffective and dangerous” or “blurry and rushed“, this project is also contested by five former Ministers of Culture: Rima Abdul-Malak, Roselyne Bachelot, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, Fleur Pellerin and Jacques Toubon. The France Radio unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, SNJ SUD and UNSA) and France Télévisions (CFDT, CGT, FO, SNJ) have filed a strike notice for May 23 and 24, 2024.
