le Comité du Dialogue Social pour les questions Européennes et Internationales (CDSEI)

Mardi 19 février à 15h

In France, the issue of media freedom was raised during this year’s presidential election campaign. Some organisations, such as Reporters Sans Frontières and the National Federation of Journalists’ Unions have demanded changes in the law to provide more protection for journalists.

A significant threat to the journalistic profession arises from the decision of the judicial authorities to serve requisitions on  journalists to name their sources of information in certain  spectacular cases, such as the discovery of banned substances in the possession of cycling teams. Fortunately, until now journalists and editors have all refused to comply with the requests, which would make them effectively into auxiliaries of the judges.

The other major threat to media freedom in France now arises from the economic dependency of many of the best-known titles of the national press. The financial problems experienced by  these established newspapers has given opportunities to  leading commercial enterprises to buy newspapers. Several papers, including Le Figaro, have been acquired by Serge Dassault, a giant industrial group whose main activity is the production of military weapons and aircraft for the armed forces, and which therefore depends on large contracts with the government. Some others have passed into the hands of other big business  groups controlled by friends of the newly elected president, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy.  One article in Le Matin Plus and another in le journal du Dimanche , which are owned respectively by Mr Arnaud Lagardere and by Mr Vincent Bollore, both of them friends of Mr Sarkozy, were censored.

There are also concerns about a potential challenge to the editorial independence of the leading daily economic newspaper Les Echos, which is being sold to Mr Bernard Arnault, one of France’s leading business figures. Journalists have opposed this takeover out of fears that Mr Arnault might, either directly or indirectly, interfere with the independence of the paper’s reporting on business matters.

“Reporters Sans Frontières”, in its 2006 report on press freedom issues in France, identified several new threats to the professional freedom of journalists. One such threat arises from the work of judges investigating high-profile scandals such as the “Clearstream” affair, in which leading politicians were alleged to have benefited from funds in a bank account in Luxembourg. The French justice system has also clashed with the media over the reporting of evidence linking members of the cycling team Cofidis with the possession of banned drugs. In these cases as well as others, journalists published items of information from confidential sources without revealing how they acquired the information. The judges in charge of investigating those cases issued search warrants in an attempt to discover who those sources were, and to that end they seized the hard disks of journalists’ computers. The journalists and editors concerned presented a united front, denouncing the actions of the courts and the police. They are defending the fundamental right of journalists not to reveal their confidential sources of information in a matter of clear public interest. France’s national journalists’ associations and trade unions have collectively called for a new law to be passed to guarantee that right. And they called on all French journalists to stand firm and not to give away the names of their confidential sources in these controversial cases.

A further source of risk for the freedom of journalists may be the recent Europe-wide law banning discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, religion or age. Professional media organisations acknowledge the need to protect every citizen from discrimination, but they are concerned that journalists may face criminal prosecution or conviction on charges of handling information which could be considered discriminatory. Likewise, the journalists’ unions and professional bodies approve new laws on the protection of privacy, but they have called for extra guarantees to ensure that they do not place  journalists at risk of breaking the law in the course of their normal professional work.

However the overriding threat to media freedom in France is associated with changes in media ownership resulting from chronic financial weakness. Many leading French newspapers have found themselves in serious financial difficulties. Some of them, notably Libération and Le Monde, have faced crises arising from their accumulated debts and lack of funds. As a consequence, Liberation became the property of a member of the Rothschild family, and was obliged to accept a financial plan involving severe cuts in journalists’ posts and expenditure. Le Monde has come under new management and been obliged  to sell many of its regional subsidiaries. Le Figaro was acquired by Mr Serge Dassault, an important French industrialist and Member of Parliament for the party founded by former President Jacques Chirac. Journalists at Le Figaro are concerned that its new owner may seek to interfere in the paper’s editorial line in favour of the French government. Mr Dassault recently said that he could not understand why only journalists, and not shareholders, were alloowed to write the articles that appear in newspapers.

The high-profile acquisition of media properties by leading French businessmen has greatly changed the national media landscape.  Mr Arnaud Lagardere, whose industrial group is also a leading supplier of electronics, aircraft and weapons to public sector enterprises, is known to be a close friend of President Sarkozy (who has publicly said of him “he’s my brother!”) Mr Lagardere owns interests in various other media organisations, including a radio station (“Europe 1”), a TV channel (M6), the magazine “Paris Match”, l’Express “Le Journal du Dimanche” and others. Mr, Vincent Bollore, who attracted much attention recently as the man who invited Mr Sarkozy to take a holiday on his yacht soon after the election, owns “Matin Plus” and “Direct Soir”, two free daily magazines, and a new TV channel  “Direct 8”. He too relies on government or public sector contracts. And Martin Bouygues, the largest  shareholder in TF1, France’s most popular TV channel, has important business interests in constructing public buildings and roads. He is also acknowledged to be close to Mr Sarkozy.

There are special concerns over the sale of France’s most influential economics and business newspaper, “Les Echos”, to Mr Arnauld, one of France’s richest men and the owner of a variety of companies dealing in luxury goods and perfumes. Journalists have expressed concern about the risk of a conflict of interest when the owner of large companies that are listed  on the stock market controls the country’s foremost business newspaper, whose task is to provide reliable and independent business information to the public.

These examples of personal ties between top French politicians and leading business figures raise serious doubts about the prospects for the survival of free and independent media in France., There were already two well-publicised examples  of censorship of articles. The one concerns Cecilia Sarkozy, Mr Sarkozy’ s wife. An article reporting that Mrs Sarkozy didn’t take part on the vote for the presidency, and then didn’t vote for her husband was censored by Mr Arnaud Lagardere owner of “le journal du dimanche”. In “Direct Matin” an article reporting that the french police blocked a group of musician (in violent manners) was unpublished. It’s also know hat the chief editor of Paris Match, Alain Genestar, was dismissed for having published a picture of Mrs Cecilia Sarkozy with her lover in New York. Journalists fear that many more such cases may occur in future.

In the past year, French journalists’ associations and trade unions have joined forces to campaign for new laws to defend media freedom. Their goal is to see new legislation in two areas – first, to protect journalists from prosecution, and secondly to prevent business groups with close links to the government from taking a controlling interest in newspapers or other mass media.