French News Channel OK, Arab News Channel Not OK

Michael Hedges December 16, 2004

French PM Jean-Pierre Raffarin announces launch plans for Chaîne Française d’Information Internationale. The French Parliament halts the distribution of Hezbullah TV channel Al-Manar.

Two years after Jacques Chirac’s post re-election promise to add diversity to the television news landscape with a French perspective an organization and, most important, a budget for “CNN a la Française” was announced December 9. The channel will be co-owned by public broadcaster France Télévision and the commercial TV company TF1. The launch year budget will be €30m, one-third of the original proposal.

“It will enjoy the advantages offered by the leading French television companies, public and private, to express diversity to which our country is so deeply attached, “ said Raffarin announcing the decision to go forward.

In July the project seemed dead in the water as negotiations about funding and organization stalled. Both Radio France Internationale (RFI) and Agence France Presse (AFP) were pressed into service to provide content. Programs will be presented in French, Arabic and English targeting Europe, Africa, the Middle East and, possibly, New York. The channels will not, however, be seen in France, avoiding competition with the all-news channel of TF1.

When originally proposed, President Chirac said it would “rival BBC or CNN.” The €30m launch year budget is a mere token when compared to CNNs world-wide budget of over €1b. CNN International, which takes only 10% of its content from the US network, reaches two out of five of Europe’s high wage earners and opinion makers each month, according to the IPSOS Europe 2004 survey released in July. Both Euronews and BBC World reach over one-quarter of this highly sought target each month.

Less than a month after French media regulator Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisual (CSA) ruled that the controversial Al-Manar TV could be freely distributed across Europe, the Conseil d’Etat voted to ban the channel December 13. Eutelsat promptly pulled to plug the following day, thus ending more than a year of legal maneuvering to throttle the anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and anti-American channel. French media law was changed in July requiring government approval of all channels on French satellite carriers. Eutelsat is based in Paris.

Several Arab language television networks are available in France, including Al-Jazeerah and Al-Arabeyeh. Al-Manar TV, based in Lebanon and controlled by Hezbullah, went largely unnoticed by authorities until October 2003 when it broadcast a Syran produced series depicting in anti-Semitic terms Jews taking over the world. The French PM sought a ban.

“It was impossible to look at,” a French official who saw the program said to Reuters. “It was more than disgusting. When Raffarin saw it he immediately said, ‘We have to shut it down.’”

Easier said than done, as no existing French law could be applied. Parliament changed the law giving the CSA jurisdiction over satellite channels. To keep broadcasting Al-Manar signed an agreement with the regulator "not to incite hate, violence or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion or nationality." Before the ink was dry Al-Manar broadcast telephone interviews claiming Israel purposely infected Arabs with AIDS and calling for war against the Jewish State.

Raffarin, in Parliament, said “These programs are incompatible with our values.”

The Conseil d’Etat and the CSA told Eutelsat to shut it down within 48 hours.

In response, the Lebanese media regulator said it would “review” French programming in their country, likely to hamper French designs on delivering the new news channel in the Middle East.

Television seems mired hopelessly in politics of the moment even as the quicker Internet becomes increasingly influential in molding opinion.  Each and every interest group – including governments and terrorists – seeks a symbolic legitimacy that television provides. Ideas and symbolism mix easily and media history – even quite recent – shows the persistent belief that television succeeds when it reflects rather than drives opinion. Every government wants its own version of Fox News not simply to air its position but to reflect a constituency. For special interests – including terrorists - to want the same should come as no surprise.

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