Rachida Dati defends public broadcasting earlier than the parliamentary fee of inquiry and requires it to be preserved | EUROtoday

The Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, insisted on Thursday February 5 that “French public broadcasting must be preserved”earlier than the parliamentary fee of inquiry into this sector which goes by way of turbulence.

“We must not weaken it. We have to work together”stated the minister to the deputies of this fee created on the request of Eric Ciotti’s Union of Rights for the Republic (UDR), a celebration allied with the National Rally which advocates the privatization of public broadcasting.

Asked in regards to the “critical financial situation” of France Télévisions raised by the Court of Auditors, M^me Dati recalled that “public broadcasting carries out public service missions which are not profitable”.

“The State will take its responsibilities”she assured in regards to the capital want of the general public firm. However, “there is an imperative for structural and organizational reform to be carried out”she judged, hoping that the joint holding mission for the sector will see the sunshine of day. On impartiality, one other contentious topic, the minister referred to Arcom, the audiovisual regulator. Candidate for mayor of Paris, M^me Dati should quickly depart the federal government.

“Not skillful”

However, she reprimanded the boss of France Télévisions, Delphine Ernotte Cunci, who in September had described CNews as “far-right channel” in an explosive context between the media within the Bolloré sphere and public broadcasting. M^me Dati claims to have informed him “that it was perhaps not clever to have indicated that another media (…) was far right ».

The commission was created in the wake of the Legrand-Cohen affair, two public service journalists accused of collusion with the Socialist Party after the broadcast, in early September, of a video showing them in a restaurant with two of its officials. Thomas Legrand declared: “We do what is necessary to [Rachida] Dati, Patrick [Cohen] and me »which could be interpreted as bias against the person concerned.

“When we say, ‘we’re going to take care of someone,’ I know what that means” And “this is not appropriate vocabulary”scolded M^me Dati Thursday, however judging “unacceptable” that we carry out “recordings without people’s knowledge”.

His nearly three-hour hearing took place generally calmly, contrasting with the often tense climate of the work of the commission of inquiry. Its president, Jérémie Patrier-Leitus (Horizons), deplored the “sad spectacle” given, after an incident which opposed him on Wednesday to the rapporteur of the said commission, Charles Alloncle (UDR).