STATEMENT

France: Controversial report recommends drastic PSM reforms

8 May 2026
The report from the inquiry on the “neutrality, functioning and funding of public broadcasting” suggests implementing €1 billion worth of cuts for the French public media sector.   
Paris, France - May 26, 2024: Radio France building in Paris, France. JeanLucIchard / Shutterstock.com

The Public Media Alliance is concerned about proposals outlined in a report from the National Assembly, which include reducing the sector’s budget by €1 billion, merging channels, and cutting services.

The report is the outcome of a six month-long inquiry into public media, which was to assess the “neutrality, functioning and funding of public broadcasting.” However, launched by the right-wing UDR, and run by its MP Charles Alloncle, the handling of the inquiry has been criticised for advancing the party’s political agenda against public media.   

Written by Alloncle, who served as rapporteur, the report was approved by the inquiry’s members by 12 votes to 10, with a dozen abstentions. And while it is not binding for the government to enact the recommendations, it’s feared this report could be used as the basis for right-wing parties’ policies ahead of the presidential election next year.  

Read more: The challenge with parliamentary inquiries

69 recommendations were made in the report. They include: 

  • Merging services, such as France 2 and France 5 into one single “generalist” channel; France Info télé and France 24 into one single news channel; and the local services – France 3 Régions and the ICI radio stations; and Radio France’s two orchestras.   
  • Ending services, such as France TV Slash, an online youth-focussed platform, which the report says produces “activist content”; France 4; Mouv’, Radio France’s youth station; and all reality TV programmes.   
  • Cutting services, including the sports budget by one-third, and the games and entertainment budget by three-quarters.  
  • Stricter neutrality measures, such as “an ethics clause that includes a requirement of neutrality and impartiality for all employees appearing on air”; a scale of sanctions for breaches of impartiality; a “neutrality clause” for directors and shareholders of production companies; and making the regulator, Arcom, produce a quarterly “pluralism index”, to be created with the help of AI.   
  • Governance reforms, including transferring the oversight of public media from the Ministry of Culture to a new “General Secretariat for Public Broadcasting” which would sit under the authority of the Prime Minister; giving the power to appoint executives to the President of the Republic; and auditing all positions with the words “Director” or “Secretary General”, assessing their actual added value.  

In total, the recommendations would supposedly amount to more than €1 billion in savings. The report’s final recommendation is to put half of this into “heritage maintenance”, and the rest to “reducing the national debt.”   

If enacted totally, these proposals would account for a drastic realignment and repositioning of public service media in France. Of particular concern is the sheer immensity of the cuts proposed: €1 billion worth of cuts amounts to around a quarter of public media’s annual revenue.  

Some of the recommendations target public media youth services. Already a demographic that public media struggle to reach, cutting services for this audience would make this endeavour only more challenging. One recommendation advises public media to focus “on popular programmes that differentiate themselves from private broadcasting.” There are other efforts within the recommendations that further this goal – the cutting of the entertainment budget, and the ending of all reality TV. Collectively, these proposals could affect the relevance of public media, if restricted to the position of just producing content that private media do not, and neglect some audience groups entirely. They would relegate public media to being a response to market failure, rather than a universal public service that delivers for all French audiences.   

While there are some noteworthy aims, particularly around bolstering the impartiality and pluralism of public service media, further assurances are needed that these aims are rooted in a genuine desire to strengthen public media’s independence, rather than weaken it. While a plurality of voices is essential, there are fears that some recommendations could lead to more extreme voices appearing on public media platforms.   

If enacted totally, these proposals would account for a drastic realignment and repositioning of public service media in France. 

There are other recommendations which could severely threaten the independence of public service media. Giving the authority of appointing the senior executives to the President of the Republic threatens turning such positions into a political office.   

In addition, the suggestion for Arcom to produce an AI-assisted quarterly report that measures “the thematic diversity of the topics covered, the proportion of topics addressed from opposing viewpoints, the geographical representation of contributors, and the distribution of editorial perspectives by political affiliation”, is hugely problematic. Even disregarding the suggestion of entrusting an AI programme to undertake this incredibly complex task, such a proposal undermines public media’s own discretion and expertise to ensure balance is upheld independently.   

As other commentators have noted, while this report is not legally binding and the recommendations do not have to be implemented, it could become a foundation of media policy for some political figures ahead of a crucial presidential election next year. Therefore, it is essential these recommendations are questioned and interrogated in detail.   

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