The future of public broadcasting suspended from the results of the 2024 legislative elections. The day after Emmanuel Macron’s announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly and therefore the convening of voters on June 30 and July 7, Sébastien Chenu, executive of the National Rally, the party leading the Europeans, confirmed that the privatization of public broadcasting was in the cards. That it would be included on the government’s agenda, in the event that it would be led by Jordan Bardella at the beginning of the summer.
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“You are going to force me to come out of my reserve”
Until then, the candidates of the National Rally for a deputy seat are thus hammering home at length in interviews, including in the public media, the interest of this proposal on the economic level without specifying what would happen to the employees of these companies. “Sorry for you but I hope you can find good working conditions again, and I am sure of it“, slipped Alexis Jolly, RN candidate in the 6th constituency of Isère, into the ear of Jordan Guéant, journalist at France 3 Alpes who interviewed him on June 16 in “Sunday in politics in the regions”. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you“, quipped the outgoing MP.
“So, I’m sorry Alexis Jolly”, interrupted Jordan Guéant. “You are going to force me to come out of my reserve (…) I am going to step out of the role of the journalist a little but I have the impression, without wanting to offend you, that you are spitting in the soup that you are in drinking“, he retorted to his guest.
“In fact, the public audiovisual service is exactly what is giving you the floor today. It brings this electoral campaign to life like no other media. It is the public audiovisual service that allows you to address your voters and perhaps get you re-elected. It gives a bit of a strange impression to hear political leaders, whoever they may be, say that they are going to privatize the public service.“, said Jordan Guéant. Before concluding: “I have plenty of other colleagues who do their work very well (…) and who are indeed worried about all of this today. Because the public audiovisual service, Mr. Jolly, and the service public in general, it is the heritage of those who do not have it”. puremedias.com invites you to watch the sequence.
The France Bleu and Franceinfo network, spared by privatization?
The privatization of public broadcasting does not come out of nowhere: this proposal was written in black and white in Marine Le Pen’s presidential project. In September 2021, in fact, the RN candidate had imagined privatizing Radio France and France Télévisions, the two most important public broadcasting entities and “preserve certain things“, like “overseas audiovisual” as well as “the voice of France in the world (France Médias Monde, editor’s note)“. “Arte will not be affected (by privatization, editor’s note) and the National Audiovisual Institute (Ina) will be transferred to the Ministry of Culture and will integrate the national archives“, she then clarified.
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Franceinfo and the network of 44 France Bleu branches would also be spared, we learned this Monday, June 17 on France Bleu Picardie. Céline Autin, journalist for the station, questioned Damien Toumi, RN candidate in the 2nd constituency of the Somme: “Damien Toumi, you are answering questions from France Bleu Picardie which belongs to the public audiovisual service, which your party intends to privatize. Who do you want to sell France Bleu Picardie to in the next three years?“, the interviewer tried to find out.
“Well listen, we want to keep France Bleu Picardie. Our idea is to privatize public broadcasting but to keep both RFI, France 24, which represent France abroad, Arte and Franceinfo, which is a news channel, and the France Bleu radios, which allow us to have proximity, which are the local radios“.
