France: RSF condemns the rushed legislative discussions on public broadcasting funds
France’s current system of funding public broadcasting through VAT — a consumption tax — is due to end this December, and discussions on a new financing model have been hindered by the quickly approaching deadline. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this lack of foresight and calls on the French government to put this issue back on the table in 2025 to give this public service the means to carry out its mission with complete independence. The NGO also recommends that parliamentarians consider funding public media through taxes on major digital platforms.
This Wednesday, 23 October, the Senate will meet in public session to examine a senatorial proposal for the Organic Law on Funding Public Broadcasting (PPLO), as the government has fast-tracked the procedure to adopt this text. The solution put in place by the amending finance law on 16 August 2022 replaced the audiovisual license fee — the previous source of public media funding paid by taxpayers who owned a television or similar audiovisual equipment — with the allocation of a fraction of VAT proceeds. However, this solution cannot be extended beyond 31 December 2024, due to its incompatibility with the Organic Law Relating to the Finance Laws (LOLF).
While the solution currently proposed certainly responds to the urgency of the situation, it does not fully meet the conditions for guaranteeing the independence of public broadcasting. The allocated amount of funding would be rediscussed by members of parliament every year, as part of discussions relating to annual finance bills. As long as the public finance programming bill does not provide for multiannual funding — a measure RSF has called for since 2022 — the stability and sustainability of public broadcast funds cannot be guaranteed.
"While the PPLO addresses the urgent nature of the situation and avoids the risks associated with funding via state-allocated appropriations, a longer-term solution must be explored. The haphazard approach to funding public media implemented since 2022 must end, and a sustainable, stable and predictable arrangement must be established to guarantee the media’s independence. This notably means establishing multiannual funding for public broadcast media. RSF proposes that part of this funding come from the revenue generated by major digital platforms at the expense of public media outlets.
Public media outlets were already weakened in the autumn of 2019 with the gradual end of the now-defunct property tax that financed them. Five years later, their future remains uncertain. The dissolution of the National Assembly on 9 June halted all legislative work on the subject, although some of these projects resumed during the summer.
RSF condemns the lack of discussion around other, more stable and progressive solutions. For this reason, RSF calls on parliament and the wider French government to propose a funding framework more amenable to guaranteeing the stability, predictability and sustainability of public broadcasting funds, as defined by Article 5 of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). These discussions should begin at the start of 2025.
Taxing major digital platforms
RSF proposes that parliamentarians consider funding public media via a tax on large digital platforms, in line with RSF’s recommendations to the European Union and its New Deal for the Right to Information. This tax could be deducted from the sales that corporations like Facebook and Google earn in France, regardless of where they are physically established.
The proceeds of this tax would give public media back part of the revenue generated at its expense.
France ranks 21st out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index.
