Legislators Offer Many Media Reform Ideas, Awaiting Next Meeting

Michael Hedges April 4, 2022 - Follow on Twitter

Media regulation is, as it has been, a patchwork. Unlike old school physics there is no grand unifying design. In recent years it has morphed from crazy quilt to slow dance. Different aspects are tackled separately by lawmakers, tossed to courts for tests of compatibility then to stakeholders for appropriate advice and back to lawmakers. There is no big bang.

The French Senat last week strongly signalled its intent to rewrite the 1986 law on freedom of communications. It has become “obsolete,” said their new proposals. Many countries have rewritten media laws based on the pre-digital era. As in virtually all jurisdictions, the French media sector has changed considerably over 35 years.

A 21 member Senat commission was formed last November and began hearings. Several dozen industry, legal and media experts were heard over two months. Those proceedings were not entirely happy, points of view contrasting. "I didn't expect so much harshness, even verbal violence,"said Senator David Assouline describing the tone to La Croix (March 31). At the end a 381 page document was prepared examining the relationship of media concentration to press freedom and the credibility of information.

Readers, listeners and viewers rarely notice the effects of excessive media concentration. They react to lack of choice. This became apparent when big online platforms like Netflix, Amazon and Disney reached across borders with the popular or, at least, different fare. Folks literally streamed to them. This distressed lawmakers across Europe and laws and rules were implemented to trim their sails, so to speak.

This French initiative, though, specifically attends to ownership scale as a deterrent to the public good. Most French media watchers deemed the report with 32 proposals as either timely or “a great wasted opportunity,” as noted by news portal Mediapart (April 1). All noted, to one side or the other, the merger of TV broadcasters TF1 and M6 and the pending sale of Lagardère assets book publisher Hachette, newspaper JDD, magazine Paris Match and national radio channel Europe 1 to telecom Vivendi, operator of cable TV company Canal+. “The Senat report gives birth to a mouse,” opined right-leaning Le Figaro (March 31).

Those two big media deals, both still officially pending, loomed large in the hearings and the proposals. Combining TF1, owned by conglomerate Bouygues, with M6, owned by RTL Group, will result in a mammoth television operator. The Vivendi acquisition of Lagardère assets would result in Editis, owned by Vivendi, being combined with Hachette, owned by Lagardère, creating a huge book publisher and much consternation among smaller competitors. Martin Bouygues, Arnaud Lagardère and Vivendi principal Vincent Bolloré shared their views with the commission.

In addition to bestowing new duties to regulator Arcom, proposals include adopting an “attention share” review for evaluating concentration within media sectors rather than simply financial market share. Arcom would be mandated to review every four years “the state of concentrations and the desirable evolution of the rules.” Media companies would be required to appoint “independent administrators” to their boards of directors to monitor editorial independence. Arcom was created at the first of the year by the merger of media regulator CSA with online copyright regulator Hadopi.

With four current candidates for the French presidency variously suggesting or demanding changes to public radio and television funding - even privatizing - the Senat proposals went the other direction - offering "an autonomous and sustainable tax resource" for public broadcasting. Local media, typically publishers, would find ongoing support. Big US-based tech platforms - disrupting "the current media equation in France” - would feel no love. But, these proposals are just that awaiting the next step. "The legislative calendar will belong to the next government,” said Senat President Laurent Lafon.

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