Why the reform of Rachida Dati worries employees
“Unlimited strike notice”. This is the response of the inter -union of Radio France and France Télévisions to the project to create a holding company, called “France Médias”, wanted at all costs by the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati. The bill relating to public audiovisual reform and audiovisual sovereignty will be presented to the National Assembly Monday, June 30 and Tuesday, July 1. The employees of the Maison de la Radio and the Music did not wait on Monday to disengage. They have been mobilized since Thursday, June 26, up to “40% of journalists at Radio France, including almost 60% in locals by France/France Bleu” according to the National Union of Journalists (SNJ).
Consequently, a good part of the day, music beaches have replaced the voice of the animators. From time to time, these hours of music are interspersed with messages explaining the motivations for this interruption of the programs: “Defending Radio France, its radios, its professions, its production, its musical training”. Internally, projects carried by the Presidency of Radio France greatly concern the 5,000 professionals of the round house. As for the opposition to the audiovisual holding project, also mentioned in this press release, it will bring together on Monday, June 30, the employees of France Télévisions, France Médias Monde and the INA.
What this bill provides
With this holding company, Rachida Dati intends to “group together the forces and energies of public audiovisual”. It wants the French public audiovisual to follow the changes in the market and its uses. Gathered under the same supervision, antennas and channels should, estimates the Minister of Culture, be more able to combat competition emanating from international streaming platforms and the development of social networks. One can also imagine that the question of budgetary savings is part of this project.
-On January 1, 2026, France Télévisions -that is to say France 2, 3, 4 and 5, France Info, the Overseas Network The 1st and its digital platform France.tv -, Radio France -Its seven stations (France Inter, France Culture, France Musique, FIP, Mouv ‘ -which would abandon the hertzian broadcast and go entirely online at the start of the school year -, Franceinfo, and the 42 antenn. Two orchestras, a choir and a master’s degree – and the National Audiovisu El (INA) Institute would be grouped in the “France Media” holding company. Since April, France Médias Monde (which brings together RFI and France 24) has been excluded from the perimeter of this future holding company. Arte France and TV5 world too. “France Médias” should therefore oversee the entire public audiovisual in four subsidiaries: France Télévisions, Radio France, L’I Ina and here (La Réunion des Networks France 3 and France Bleu) and thus count nearly 12,000 employees.
– The State would hold the entire capital of “France Media”.
– At the head of this holding company, a CEO, appointed for a five -year mandate by the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom), on the proposal of the company’s board of directors. This CEO would also chair the board of directors of the new subsidiaries (France Télévisions, Radio France, INA and here) and should have a single information director under its authority for all the subsidiaries of the holding company.
What dreads public audiovisual employees
Radio France unionists wrote on June 25 in a press release: “This holding/merger project could be fatal for public radio”. The employees of France Télévisions join them in their concern.
– The Intersyndicale de France Télévisions believes that France Media represents “a risk for editorial independence, pluralism and freedom of information, and the risk of accentuated political control if the governance of the holding company is verticalized and / or is placed in the hands of a single boss.”
– possible budget cuts, if the National Assembly validated this bill, bring together those who produce radio and television programs every day, the jeopardizing their jobs, their health, their working conditions.
– Attached to the values of the public service, the employees of these companies do not forget the listeners and viewers. They fear “endangering the services and programs offered to the public, forced by budgets that keep being reduced” still writes the inter -union of France Télévisions.
