Because of this movement, the music turned full on France info, France Inter or France Culture, three quarters of the journalists of Radio France supposed to work being on strike, according to one of their unions, the SNJ.
Internal sources at France Télévisions identified 45% of strikers in all trades within the France 3 network, “never seen”, and 25% at the Paris headquarters.
Consequence: on France 2, the 1 p.m. news, “solidarity” with the movement, was shortened and extracts from Télématin were rebroadcast instead of the morning show, a first in 30 years.
Disruptions also on the franceinfo and France 24 channels, the employees of France Médias Monde (France 24 and RFI) also being called upon to mobilize by an inter-union CGT-CFDT-FO-SNJ-SUD-UNSA-CGC-CFTC, just like those of Arte and Ina.
In Paris, several hundred people demonstrated under the sun between Montparnasse and the National Assembly, behind a banner proclaiming “Save public broadcasting”.
In front of the Assembly, the demonstrators received the support of Nupes deputies, just before the start of the work of the new assembly elected in June.
– “Execution” –
The Nupes had come in force, with Danielle Simonnet, Sandrine Rousseau, Adrien Quatennens, François Ruffin, Raquel Garrido or Aymeric Caron. A sign that the left-wing opposition wants to weigh in on this debate after the weakening of the LREM majority in the legislative elections.
The abolition of the fee as envisaged by Emmanuel Macron is equivalent to “a killing of the public audiovisual service”, declared to AFP the deputy Nupes / LFI Clémentine Autain.
The end of the fee is included in the package of measures on purchasing power, which must be presented on July 6 in the Council of Ministers, for an examination in stride by the deputies.
But the result of the June legislative elections and the weakening of the LREM majority make the debates more uncertain.
If all goes according to his plans, the executive wants to abolish the fee this fall, in favor of a current budget over several years.
This measure was proposed by Mr. Macron during the presidential campaign, under purchasing power. But according to its opponents, it threatens the financing and independence of public broadcasting.
Amounting to 138 euros in mainland France and 88 euros overseas, the fee only concerns households that have a television set and is all the more strategic since public service channels have been deprived of evening advertising since 2009. .
Its removal will result in a shortfall of more than 3 billion euros, which the State promises to compensate.
But the strikers are worried about seeing the budget for public broadcasting “decided by the government and subject to the vagaries of the vote on the annual finance laws”. They prefer “an allocated resource, guaranteeing its economic and political independence as well as possible”, according to a union leaflet.
“My fear is that even if we are offered a new method of financing, it will never be up to what we have now,” said AFP Sarah Danzelle, documentalist at France 3 Normandy and South trade union representative, who demonstrated in Paris.
In a report published Monday by the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, the economist committed to the left Julia Cagé proposed to establish a new royalty mechanism inspired by the Nordic countries. It would be a tax specifically dedicated to the financing of public broadcasting, but variable according to household income.
Beyond the question of the fee, the strikers are worried about the future of public broadcasting since an LR senatorial report published on June 8 launched the idea of a major merger between France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde and Ina.
“This has been a subject in the air for several years. This debate will take place,” said the new Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, last week in the newspaper Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui en France. She will be heard on Wednesday by the Senate’s Culture and Communication Committee.
