France

Public-sector media workers on strike

Article published on the 2008-06-18 Latest update 2008-06-19 09:49 TU

Jean-François Copé
(Photo: AFP)

French public-sector media employees, including some from Radio France Internationale, went on strike on Wednesday in response to a call from unions to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ban on advertising income for the public media sector. This ban affects programming and budgets for French public television stations and public radio broadcast in France, to a total of 800 million euros. This could add up to 1.2 billion euros of lost revenue, according to the unions.

The strike was called in response to the upcoming report to be released on 25 June by a commission headed by Jean-Francois Copé. The group, made up of media producers and members of parliament, is to determine the future of French public television and radio programming.

Over the past ten days, six Socialist and Communist MPs have quit the Copé commission, saying in a statement that “Sarkozy has already made his decision”. They added that salaries would be reduced and, when the plan is fully executed by 2012, the whole public media sector could be dismantled.

The report is expected to outline how lost advertising revenue could be replaced. One plan suggests a raise in the 116-euro television license fee paid annually by each household in France - an idea that was rejected by Sarkozy. However, a tax increase could still be levied as part of a state-sanctioned measure to combat inflation.

Copé has already suggested that the loss of advertising revenue for public television could be compensated by a transfer of Radio France Internationale’s portion of the licensing fee to them. For RFI, this would mean a loss of 60 million euros, or 40 per cent of its budget.

RFI's 130-million-euro budget is financed by the license fee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Copé Commission is also calling for the complete reorganisation of public television, which would include closing some local stations.

Public media unions say the Comission is aiming to dismantle public broadcasting for the benefit of private stations.

The external broadcasting sector is also expected to be affected by cuts. A new holding group, bringing together RFI and the TV stations France24 and TV5 Monde is in the pipeline.

Personnel at RFI are concerned about how the new holding is to be financed and how very distinct companies could work together.

Unions are calling for RFI to keep its portion of the license fee.