Estrange destiny of harmful ideas! There are some that we kick into the ground and think we are rid of. But it happens that they walk underground, like a mole, until they reappear, unexpectedly, for the worse. Such is the case with the resurrection of the decayed ghost of the ORTF.
Rachida Dati, just appointed Minister of Culture, confirms this intention by posing it as a major element of her upcoming action. We would integrate together France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde (which includes France 24 and RFI [Radio France internationale]), and the National Audiovisual Institute [INA]. [L’ancien ministre de la culture, désormais chargé du commerce extérieur] Franck Riester, rue de Valois, had previously made this project his pet. History often progresses straight with curved lines, the Covid-19 epidemic seemed to have freed us from them. Alas! The minister has just told us, particularly on France Inter, that if we proceeded quickly with this merger, if we had before us a consolidated public broadcasting company, “strong, powerful, preserved, the budgetary aspect will follow[it] ».
This is indeed a logic that seems doubtful, especially if we consider the bottom line. The impression has often prevailed since 2017 that public broadcasting was poorly regarded by the executive power in place. A first sign, derisory, was provided in 2019 by the decision of the Minister of Public Accounts, Gérald Darmanin [aujourd’hui ministre de l’intérieur] to reduce the fee by a symbolic euro. He mixed insolence with contempt. Then, along the same lines, the pure and simple, deplorable abolition of this “directed” tax was announced. Deletion surrounded by many promises, wooden crosses, iron crosses, according to which the guarantee of lasting financing would not be affected: perfectly fragile promises. In this light, how can we be persuaded that the heterogeneous assembly in question would suddenly change, in a positive way, the budgetary choices, that is to say the political will?
Competition of desires for power
Certainly, encouraging these separate companies to coordinate efforts in the service of original and new projects can only seem welcome. Nothing could be more opportune for a government to push them to do so, particularly during the negotiation of “objective and means contracts”. Yes, but in this case, it is something completely different: an organic fusion that would take us back to the antediluvian time of the gargantuan ORTF, to the time when governments closely controlled programs and information.
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