Will newspapers devoid of writing worthy of the name continue to benefit from the postal and fiscal assistance currently in force? To this question, asked in winter 2020 in the wake of the movement to mobilize former employees of Science & Life, who had drawn the attention of the Ministry of Culture to the process of evicting journalists from press titles (ex-Mondadori) bought by the Reworld group, the response is positive. The decree, published Thursday, December 23 at Official newspaper, indeed endorses this possible scenario. At the same time, it nevertheless strengthens the criteria for access to titles in the economic regime of the press.
So that the “Newspapers and periodicals having a direct link with current events” continue to benefit from the preferential postal rate and the 2.1% VAT rate, the text indicates, they will have to provide “Original content consisting of information that has been the subject of journalistic processing, in particular in the research, collection, verification and formatting of this information “. A clarification which replaces the previous formulation, considered too vague, which mentioned a “Significant editorial contribution”.
The decree then specifies: “This processing, which can be provided by approved press agencies, is carried out by an editorial team, made up of professional journalists within the meaning of Article L.7111-3 of the Labor Code. “ In other words: publications will be able to call on external service providers to fill in their pages.
“This text does not bring any kind of progress for magazine press titles like those of the Reworld group”, regrets Claude Cécile, member of the national office of the National Union of Journalists. For the record, it is however good to study a possible conditionality of public aid to newspapers to the presence and work of journalists that Roselyne Bachelot, the Minister of Culture, had entrusted, on December 24, 2020, a mission to Laurence Franceschini, the president of the Joint Committee for Publications and Press Agencies (CPPAP).
Application review after two years
This had made recommendations in April, the basis of the consultation which brought together professional organizations representing press editors and trade unions representing journalists. “Legally, we cannot prevent” this recourse to agencies which, in fact, employ journalists equipped with press cards, recalls Christophe Pauly, national secretary in charge of the media at the F3C-CFDT – and this, whatever the risks of social dumping.
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