Grandstand. Pluralism of information and media concentration are definitely at the heart of the news at the start of the year. After the French government commissioned a mission on the subject and the Senate launched a commission of inquiry on the same subject, the European Commission opened, on January 10, a public consultation aimed at developing a European Media Freedom Act, a first version of which could be published in the third quarter.
But there are definitely subjects which sink, systematically or almost, into confusion, and prevent any serene debate. Media pluralism and concentration are part of this. The electoral campaign which is underway, with its share of temptations among certain candidates to make scapegoats of journalists, will certainly not help to derogate from this. A few simple ideas can hopefully help illuminate the debate.
Being clear about the differences that exist between pluralism of opinions, plurality of sources, and ownership of the media is a first condition. Let us push the reasoning to the point of absurdity: is it preferable that all the publishers be in the same hands, but that they ensure that each political or philosophical current has the possibility of expressing itself in an equitable manner, or that each media is held by different owners, but that they all carry the same point of view?
The identity of the shareholder is one thing, the ability of the editorial staff to work independently is another. Moreover, one could oppose the name and shame in recent days (Vincent Bolloré, Bernard Arnault, Patrick Drahi, Xavier Niel, Crédit Mutuel) a reference thirty years back: Bouygues was already the owner of TF1, and Suez one of the two reference shareholders of M6; Lagardère (with Matra at the time) held the world’s leading magazine press group, part of the regional daily press (Provence and Var-Morning in particular), Europe 1 and the Five; the Hersant group was still at the peak of its influence…
We could also recall the editorial independence law of 2016 which strengthens the ability of journalists to oppose any pressure and refuse to disclose their sources, and which provides for the generalization of ethics committees to all television and radio channels.
Lack of competitiveness
In all cases, the diversity of sources is well guaranteed. Viewers now have a choice of four national news channels, and digital radio has enabled BFM to add a second channel [BFM Radio], in addition to BFM Business, opposite Franceinfo and all the antennas offering wide ranges of information (France Inter, France Culture, France Musique, RTL, Europe 1, RMC, but also Radio Classique, Sud Radio, etc.).
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