“Why break a tool that works?” asks Sophie Binet

“Why break a tool that works?”, wonders, Wednesday March 13, about France Inter Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, after the hearing in the Senate of the Minister of Culture. Before the Senate Culture and Communication Committee, Rachida Dati declared on Tuesday that she wanted “a unique governance” from this year for public broadcasting, which includes Radio France and France Télévisions.

This French-style BBC project “very worried” the CGT. Its general secretary also supports the strike which is coming to “Radio France on March 26”. Sophie Binet fears that a “merger does not result in simplification”. It thus alerts on “the danger” what would a merger represent “in matters of information” “in a context where information has never been so concentrated in the hands of billionaires”. “We need to have a strong public service to guarantee citizens’ right to information”, she pleads. She notes that “the processing of information by radio and television” are not the same and therefore judges “important to have a plurality of information processing”.

Audiences “that continue to grow”

Sophie Binet also welcomes the results of public broadcasting “which works very well”. She highlights in particular on Radio France “high quality programs and audiences which continue to grow, like France Télévisions”.

A little earlier, on Wednesday, the central union delegate of the CGT Radio France, Betrand Durand, alerted on France Culture. “It is feared that radio will suffer particularly from the creation of a holding company,” did he declare. Sharing his “concern for the sustainability of public service radio and its missions”. He fears a “cutting up Radio France to supply the various subsidiaries of the holding company”.

He explains that “France Télévisions is itself a holding company, but Radio France is a unique company, with in-house production methods that are very important to us and which are linked to the quality of the programs broadcast.” The trade unionist considers that “Radio France certainly needs resources to ensure its missions and activities more than governance, on the pretext that forces should be brought together.” Bertrand Durand also believes that “the fact of creating a holding company will not produce any savings, on the contrary”. He cites the case of the BBC “which particularly suffered in terms of resources when its activities were resized.”