An increased trend towards concentration in the media? At the request of the PS group, a Senate commission of inquiry gets to the heart of the matter this January with the scheduled hearings of Vincent Bolloré, Bernard Arnault, Arnaud Lagardère or even Xavier Niel. Just that. All the hearings will be broadcast live on the Senate website, the committee said in a statement Monday.
Press group bosses heard
Vincent Bolloré, majority shareholder of the Bolloré group, former chairman of the supervisory board of Vivendi and of the Canal Plus group, will be heard on January 19. Bolloré is now present in television (Canal +, CNews, C8), radio (Europe 1, RFM and Virgin Radio), the written press with here is, Capital and Gala, and more recently Paris Match and the JDD. On January 20, the commission of inquiry will hear successively from Bernard Arnault, CEO of the LVMH group, then Arnaud Lagardère, CEO of the Lagardère group. Xavier Niel, founder and shareholder of the Iliad group, will be auditioned on the 21st.
The commission of inquiry, which has already carried out ten hearings in November and December, scheduled the same day hearings of Edwy Plenel, president and co-founder of Médiapart, Eric Fottorino, co-founder of The1 week, Nicolas Beytout, founder of Opinion and Isabelle Robert, president of the information site Days.
Develop legislation
She will hear on January 24 Delphine Ernotte-Cunci, president of France Télévisions, Sibyle Veil, CEO of Radio France, and Bruno Patino, president of the management board of Arte France. On January 28, Maxime Saada, chairman of the board of Canal Plus, then Nicolas de Tavernost, chairman of the board of M6, as well as Mathieu Pigasse, chairman of New independent editions.
The hearings will continue in February: Patrick Drahi, president of the Altice group, on the 2nd; Jean-Michel Baylet, president of the group La Dépêche du Midi, and Pascal Chevalier, president of Reworld Media, on the 3rd; Martin Bouygues, chairman of the Bouygues group, on the 9th; Gilles Pélisson, CEO of the TF1 group, on the 14th. As of Monday, the senators will hear from Nicolas Théry, president of the National Confederation of Crédit Mutuel and Philippe Carli, president of the EBRA group, then Louis Echelard, president of the management board of the SIPA Ouest group. France. For the centrist president of the commission, Laurent Lafon, this diversity of people heard “should make it possible to pose the issues, to identify the risks and, beyond that, to project oneself into proposals for the evolution of the legislation”.