Dati wants to “bring together the forces” of public broadcasting into a “powerful pole”

The new Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, estimated on Wednesday that to “preserve” public broadcasting, it was necessary to “gather forces” in a “powerful pole”, on the model of certain European neighbors. “We must make this reform and quickly. You can count on me,” she told France Inter. “Public broadcasting, in a rule of law, in a democracy, it must be preserved” and “in a world which is undergoing immense technological upheaval, if you want to preserve it, you must bring together forces,” argued the minister. .

Following the British model, a French-style BBC? “When I was not Minister of Culture, it was my idea, my conviction” already, underlined Ms. Dati. “There can be mergers, cooperation, positive synergies,” she suggested. “We started it through local networks.” The merger between the television channel France 3 and the regional radio stations France Bleu should ultimately result in a single brand of local public broadcasting, with unions fearing a merger.

Also read “I know, you’re a star”: Rachida Dati’s little dig at Léa Salamé live on France Inter

More generally regarding public broadcasting, avenues for reform have multiplied last year, and the Senate dominated by the right even voted in June in favor of the creation of a common “strategic holding” between France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde and the National Audiovisual Institute (INA). This idea was inspired by a bill by Franck Riester, former Minister of Culture, abandoned in 2020 in the midst of the Covid health crisis.

In 2022, the previous minister, Rima Abdul-Malak, had also called on several occasions to strengthen “synergies” between public groups, without however being in favor of a “large institutional mechanism”. For Ms. Dati, from LR, “you have to know what objective you are aiming for, the rest will follow from there”, in particular “the budgetary aspect”. The “TV license fee” was abolished in 2022 and temporarily replaced by the allocation of a fraction of VAT. She finally called not to be “afraid” of these changes, while these prospects cause internal turmoil and concern.