“If we invest, it is for reasons of prestige, influence”

Is the influence of billionaires on the press new in France? “Concentration has existed for a very long time. The first large press group at the end of the 18th century was held by Charles-Joseph Panckoucke. What has changed in recent decades is that the press is no longer a profitable sector. “The news media bring in little money. If you invest in the media, it’s for reasons of prestige, influence. There is a permanent suspicion of these oligarchs”, explains Alexis Levrier, specialist in the history of journalism.

Should we be afraid of the stranglehold of Vincent Bolloré on certain media? “We have an actor who, even if he said the opposite before the Senate, assumes an interventionism and a desire to silence any internal pluralism within CNews and Europe 1. He is guided by a political, cultural project, and without doubts an electoral project, since it allowed the emergence of Eric Zemmour and made his candidacy possible”, specifies the specialist in the history of journalism.

What can the parliamentary commission of inquiry do? “It comes from the least powerful chamber. It will not have the last word and it is launched by a minority group, the socialist group. It will make proposals. But it has a power: it obliges the owners of the press to to appear. They are summoned to tell the truth, they take an oath. It is more of a symbolic order”, concludes Alexis Levrier.