Posted on 12/10/2004 7:03:03 AM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
France is to launch a French-language news channel next year in a long-awaited attempt to challenge the dominance of the American view of world current affairs, the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, said yesterday.
The government will provide €30m (£21m) in start-up funding for the channel, which will "allow international broadcasting that will express the diversity to which our nation is attached," Mr Raffarin said.
The CII (International Information Channel) project, better known in France as "CNN à la Francaise", is a pet project of Jacques Chirac's and was first announced shortly after his 2002 re-election.
It was initially greeted with widespread scepticism, seen as yet another Canute-like attempt to preserve French language and culture in the face of the inexorable onward march of English.
La langue de Molière benefits from a battery of laws and directives to protect it at home, but in an age of global communications and the internet it has lost out to English abroad and is now the 11th most widely spoken language in the world. Nor is it any longer the language of diplomacy, even within Europe.
But after France's outspoken opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq last year the channel is seen as a valuable tool in promoting France's language and its view of global affairs.
President Chirac, in a vision shared by China and Russia, favours a "multipolar" view of world affairs and is concerned about the "unilateralist" domination of the US.
The leading private broadcaster, TF1, and its state television group, France Télévisions, will mount a 50-50 venture that will employ 240 people and make use of the existing networks of AFP (Agence France Presse) and RFI (Radio France Internationale).
An estimated 260 million people around the world speak French as a native or second language, compared with some 700 million thought to speak English with some degree of competence. CII, which will not be broadcast inside France, is therefore likely to transmit some programmes in languages other than French - including English.
· France's 35-hour working week will be radically eased under proposals outlined by Mr Raffarin to allow companies and employees to negotiate individual overtime agreements.
The unpopular prime minister also pledged to cut France's near-10% unemployment rate to below 9% next year.
Don't speak french.
gee a government funded news station...perfect for Anti-American propaganda....not that I expected anything better from the Frogs anyway....
It's Al Jazeera Deux!
A has been chicken shit country that still believes it's a world power even though we saved their behinds twice in the last 100 years. How very french of them.
What they ignore is that the CNN view of the world isn't that different than the French view of the world. So apparently what they really want to be is the French counter to Fox News. But if they think they will be putting out anti-american "news" that we aren't hearing already, they don't know CNN.
Love the retitling!
It's like those French have a different word for everything.
TV5 is available around the world, on many US cable systems, and on satellite. It's a French channel with drama and sit-com programming, as well as the rebroadcast news from France 2 in Paris. Viewership is minimal, but sustaining. I have no reason to believe that a government-run channel that rehashes the news will be any more successful.
"The government will provide €30m (£21m) in start-up funding for the channel..."
Money better spent on life-saving innovations, like, oh... air conditioning.
As if the US media doesn't bust their ass everyday to do the same thing.
I'd likely give the 'French CNN' more credit though - they robably plan on bashing the 'US view' regardless of who's in the White House.
"The government will provide €30m (£21m) in start-up funding for the channel..."
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It figures that Chirac's goverment is sponsoring it -- this idiot does not know how deep of a hole he is digging with the U.S. since we still have a real President. One of these days, when France is a full Muslim country, that maggot Chirac is going to yell for help...and guess what....
Wonder if their news is accompanied by a laugh track ?
Doubtless, we'll end up taking on the man's job (the way we always do), and rush over there to save their sorry, worthless, America-loathing hinders. AGAIN.
Refute the US Media's World View?
I believe that the US MSM has cornered the market in using its media outlets to push a Progressive thought on the us. The MSM long ago gave up providing NEWS - now they simply provide an outlet for the Liberal / Progressive World View.
Should be a hit in France, Quebec and Cote d'Ivoire.
Perhaps Chirac could get the French government to pay for the CNN equivalent of FoxBlockers for the entire population of his country. And, of course, make it a criminal offense not to have it installed on one's TV.
It will be number one in France and Montreal... and be outperformed by Telemundo Soap Opera Reruns in the rest of the world.
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