Their stranglehold on most of the media in France raises concerns. As of this week, several large industrialists are summoned to the Senate. The latter must submit its report at the end of March to shed light on the economic and democratic consequences of such a concentration.
“Never in the history of France has a handful of billionaires had such a strong grip on television channels, radio, newspapers and magazines, and this in the midst of the presidential campaign”, notes Alexis Lévrier, media historian and lecturer at the University of Reims, with AFP.
Vincent Bolloré, leading shareholder of Canal+, two major publishing groups (Editis, Hachette), numerous newspapers (Prisma Media magazines, JDD, Paris Match) and radio Europe 1, will be auditioned on Wednesday. It was on his CNews news channel that Eric Zemmour, a far-right polemicist, took off to become a presidential candidate.
Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH at the head of the daily newspapers The echoes, The Parisian and Radio Classique will be auditioned on Thursday, Patrick Drahi, boss of the telecoms group Altice (BFMTV, RMC) on February 2 and Martin Bouygues (whose television group TF1 plans to merge with M6), on February 9.
1986 Act deemed obsolete
It remains to be seen what whoever wins the presidential election in April will do with the Senate report. Many consider the Freedom of Communication Act of 1986 to be obsolete.
In a gallery of World
published in mid-December, more than 250 journalists and media professionals, including Christophe Deloire, Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, called on presidential candidates to make commitments to oppose the “scourge” of hyperconcentration in the media.
They demanded an “in-depth reform” of the 1986 law, accompanied by the creation of a specific “legal status” for editorial staff and a “crime of influence peddling in the press” to “limit any interventionism shareholders” and “guarantee the active participation of newsrooms in the governance of their media”.