RFI staff stage strike over controversial public media merger

RFI
·1-min read

Employees across France’s massive public broadcasting sector, including RFI, are striking for two days to protest a proposed public media merger put forward by Culture Minister Rachida Dati.

As well as cancellations to regular broadcasts, rallies were held Thursday near the National Assembly and the Ministry of Culture in Paris.

Dati has defended the "ambitious" and "long-awaited" reform – saying it would strengthen the public media industry, which is facing stiff competition from private companies.

The first step would be a transitional phase, with a common holding company for public broadcasting as of 1 January, 2025. A merger would follow a year later.

The bill would provide for the creation of a giant new company called France Médias, with a budget of €4 billion.

It would bring together France Télévisions, Radio France and the National Audiovisual Institute (INA).

Some 16,000 employees would be affected be the change.

It has not yet been decided if France Médias Monde (RFI, France 24, Monte Carlo Doualiya) will be part of the merger plan.

A first reading of the bill by MPs was slated for this Thursday and Friday in the National Assembly, but due to a backlog of other issues it is likely to be postponed until next month.

'Demagogic and dangerous'

In a column in daily newspaper Le Monde published on Wednesday, more than 1,100 Radio France employees slammed the project as "demagogic, ineffective and dangerous".

"Our survival is at stake," they wrote.

Dati sought to reassure employees with a message on social media.


Read more on RFI English

Read also:
Gaza war vanishing from French news channels amid fears of media bias
French media boss Arnaud Lagardere resigns after embezzlement charge
French Sunday paper ends strike as far-right editor takes helm

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • Russian troops surrender to an elite brigade as the Kharkiv front holds, Ukraine says

    In a video released by Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade, Russian troops can be seen surrendering in Vovchansk.

  • Are you ‘far-Right’? Take our quiz!

    We hear the term “far-Right” a lot these days. Or at least, we do if we get our news from the BBC, The Guardian or prominent Left-wing pundits. But what precisely do they mean by it? Unfortunately, they rarely say. They tend to just call a party, politician or group of voters “far-Right”, and leave it at that.

  • Trump Couldn’t Stop Gibbering in Front of Nation’s Biggest CEOs

    Former President Donald Trump left some of the country’s most powerful CEOs scratching their heads, cringing, or just outright laughing during a private meeting in the nation’s capital on Thursday.On MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday, CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin said he’d spoken to several CEOs who were at the gathering, including many who considered themselves pro-Trump. Among the attendees were Apple’s Tim Cook and JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon.“They walked away from that meeting, I think, a bit

  • A Russian tank stuck in a large crater became a sitting duck for Ukraine's drones, a video appears to show

    A video released by Ukraine's 68th Jaeger Brigade appears to show a Russian tank falling into a crater and exploding under Ukrainian fire.

  • David Cameron is a disgrace to Britain

    Why would anybody trust the Conservative Party to make the big decisions about the future of Britain, when they can’t even agree on what to do about Nigel Farage?

  • Vladimir Putin has had another bad week – and eyes are now on the Ukraine peace summit

    It has been another bad week for Vladimir Putin. In direct response to his unprovoked invasion, Ukraine has this week been able to sign a 10-year security pact with America - a bridge to its eventual membership of NATO, even if that is still a very, very long way away. EU accession talks for Ukraine will also begin before the end of the month.

  • Trump boasts of cognitive test, then flubs doctor's name

    Donald Trump is so proud of a cognitive assessment he took while president that he boasted about it in a speech Saturday, while attacking what he claims is US President Joe Biden's lack of mental acuity.As part of his attack on what he says is the 81-year-old Biden's declining mental acuity, Trump told the laughing crowd in Detroit that the president had been lost while at the G7 in Italy, turning "to look at trees," while other world leaders were looking at a parachutist who'd just landed in an

  • Huge poll predicts every seat in Scotland in General Election

    A FRESH poll has predicted the result of every seat in the General Election, with the Tories set to retain just one seat in Scotland.

  • France is on the brink of all-out civil conflict

    As some 500,000 Left-wingers marched in France’s cities yesterday, shouting anti-Fascist slogans, never had Lenin’s phrase seemed more apposite: “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

  • Labour to slap higher council tax on homes with big gardens, say Tories

    Home owners with gardens will pay higher council tax under plans being considered by Labour, it is claimed.

  • Shunned by West, Russian army deserters live in fear

    Russian officer Farkhad Ziganshin had prepared himself for a life of military service since a young age.- 'Live with dignity' -  Ziganshin went to a military boarding school at the age of 10 and graduated from a military academy that prepares Russian tank commanders. 

  • Sorry, Sunak – what Britain needs is a leader who’s a bit nuts

    Guess who’s to blame for our nation’s woes? According to a Gallup report it’s the “quiet quitters” who are costing the economy £257 billion in lost output. They’re the reason our country has plunged down the league table of the wealthiest nations. And the people at Gallup have figured out that this lack of productivity stems from a growing sense of sadness, stress and anger; all of which cause that loss of motivation. The polling company supposes that only 10 per cent of the workforce puts extra

  • Ukraine proves it can target the Russian air force's weakest link

    Ukraine appears to have hit on a strategy to strike back at the Russian jets lobbing glide bombs at its defenses.

  • Russian soldier says army suffering heavy losses in Kharkiv offensive

    Anton Andreev says only 12 out of 100 soldiers remained alive after unit came under Ukrainian fire and drones in Vovchansk

  • Donald Trump's Fixation with Former “The Apprentice” Contestant Jennifer Murphy Explored in New Book (Exclusive)

    Murphy previously claimed that Trump had kissed her. Now, an upcoming book titled 'Apprentice in Wonderland' explores the pair's alleged bond at length

  • If the Right can’t unite, Starmer will change Britain beyond recognition

    If the polls are accurate, our great country is sleepwalking into a very dangerous future. In just 19 days’ time, the UK could be run by more than 500 Left-wing MPs. We are on the brink of a one-party state that will change our country for the worse.

  • How Ukraine’s surplus Western missiles humbled Putin’s billion dollar Crimea defences

    The night sky over Crimea flashed with explosions and tracer fire as the barrage of American-made missiles arrived and found their targets.

  • Swiss right-wing leader calls Ukraine summit an 'embarrassment'

    A leading Swiss right-wing nationalist panned a summit his country was hosting in a bid to pressure Russia to end its war on Ukraine as an "embarrassment", reflecting the view that the talks are damaging for Switzerland's traditional neutrality. The right-wing Swiss Peoples' Party (SVP), the biggest group in the lower house of parliament, says neutrality is an integral part of Switzerland's prosperity, and it has initiated a referendum to embed the principle in the constitution. Leading figures in the party have argued Switzerland should not have hosted this weekend's summit without Russia, and Nils Fiechter, chief of the SVP's youth wing, delivered a damning verdict on the talks to Russian broadcaster RT.

  • Tories accuse BBC of ‘lefty Blairite bias’ over Laura Kuenssberg panel

    The BBC has been accused of “lefty Blairite bias” as it was criticised for selecting a panel of Rishi Sunak critics to join its flagship Sunday politics show.

  • Fresh poll predicts Tories will win just 72 seats in next parliament

    Two polls published today spell bad news for Rishi Sunak, with one showing a drop of four points and the other that his party is on course to pick up just 72 seats. A poll by Savanta for The Sunday Telegraph showed the Tories down four points to just 21% of the vote - the lowest by that pollster since the dying days of Theresa May's premiership in early 2019. In a boost for Nigel Farage, the poll showed Reform UK up three points with 13% of the vote.