Ladies and gentlemen,Dear friends,We are all aware of the technological upheavals that are causing the press sector as a whole to rethink its practices, its methods and its structures. The Estates General of the Written Press were one of the great places of debate and exchange on the future of the press in the digital age. As you know, as soon as I arrived on Rue de Valois, I identified the digital revolution as the major issue of the years we are going through. This is a challenge that we face collectively and that concerns all sectors of my department, heritage, of course, creation as well, and that does not fail to affect the areas of the press as well.
Like all companies in the media sector, Agence France-Presse is obviously concerned, especially since it is precisely a showcase for the quality and international reach of French-style information. Its central role, its unique capacity to irrigate many media outlets in France and the world imposes
to open debates without delay with vigilance, but also without complacency and above all without “taboo”.
It is obvious, and the report submitted by Pierre LOUETTE to the government last March has amply demonstrated if need be, that AFP, in the face of these profound changes, must make a fundamental strategic shift, which alone will enable it to consolidate its status as a global generalist information agency.
It is the responsibility of the public authorities, and I fully assume it, to prepare for the future, by providing AFP with the assets best suited to this indispensable evolution.
The objectives are clear. In the context of increasingly intense, if not threatening, competition, it is essential that the Agency be able to strengthen its international position. We all know that the last ten years have seen decisive changes and that these upheavals in the media landscape
will continue to grow and accelerate in the years to come.
It is therefore our duty to provide AFP with the most effective instruments, particularly multimedia. This will not happen alone, or without funding: this is why it is urgent to equip AFP with the tools and means to continue its development, to finance heavy investments, but necessary for its adaptation and for our requirement to maintain a French agency at the level of its major anglophone competitors in particular.
You know the current status of Agence France-Presse. You know that it was passed in 1957, in an economic, political and technological context fundamentally different from the one we know.
Europe, for example, was in its infancy, or rather its first sentence, the European Community of Six. Above all, the status set up at the time was very special, since AFP is a commercial company, but has neither a shareholder nor a capital. It’s called a legal “hapax”, which is something that only exists once.
unique in its kind, which, in itself, is not a flaw, but which, given its current limitations, deserves to be reflected on its evolution.
Reform is necessary, and it can only be done in consultation, in listening and in dialogue with each of the stakeholders in the future of this prestigious institution. I am thinking in the first place of the Agency’s employees, but also of its clients, that is to say the French and international press, which is fed by its dispatches, by
its investigations, its often exemplary work.
My method is clear, here as elsewhere: dialogue and also reflection must be the first steps of an accepted reform. That is why I wanted to set up a committee today, which I wanted to make up of indisputable experts from the media world. He will be in charge, for a few months, of accompanying me in this reflection.
This method is part of a process initiated when the Contract of Objectives and Means was signed in December 2008, and continued by the report of Pierre LOUETTE delivered in March to the government. It seems to me essential to deepen this reflection and to enrich it in the light of the twofold crisis that strikes us today:
and the crisis in the funding model for the press in general, which has been hit hard by the shift of these revenues to digital.
The committee’s mission will be to take stock of the current situation of AFP, the economic context in which it operates, and its positioning in an increasingly competitive world. He will thus be able to enlighten the government on the conditions under which AFP will have to evolve its structure and, to this end, its legal status.
To carry out this mission, I have identified four priority areas:
1) First, a diagnosis of the general news agency sector. It will be necessary to identify their strengths and weaknesses, understand the evolution of their economic model and evaluate the consequences of this evolution on the activity of AFP.
2) Then, put in perspective the Agency’s development plan and its funding related to its 2009-2013 objectives and means contract.
3) In addition, identify the principles of governance that guarantee both the absolute editorial independence of AFP, while allowing it to ensure its economic development.
4) Finally, specify the organization and legal framework best suited to ensure that AFP’s general interest missions are carried out.
These are, in a way, four points of reference that I wanted you to consider.
I also wanted to tell you that I am not unaware of the sincere concerns raised by the very suggestion of a reform of the statute of Agence France-Presse. I have heard the fears expressed by the employees, but I know that their wish concerns above all the preservation of the independence of the Agency which is its trademark and
dignity.
I want to assure them that I absolutely share these concerns and this requirement. The independence of AFP is not only a reason for existence, but also, of course, a guarantee of its credibility, both nationally and internationally. It is precisely our will to guarantee and strengthen it, and I wished to reaffirm this solemnly before you this morning.
However, contrary to what I have been able to read here and there, we do not want to simply ensure the “survival” of AFP, but rather to give it the means for a sustainable and ambitious development, in the image of the place it has occupied, since its inception, in the world of media and in the world media.
Reading the minutes of the hearings held at the National Assembly, chaired by Mrs Michèle TABAROT, whose initiative and work I would like to commend, I find that very few people actually dispute the need for AFP to have new investment capacities. What is at issue are the
means to achieve this, not the purpose.
It will be necessary to be inventive in terms of funding structure, but to propose measures that allow reform in fidelity to what has made the success of the Agency since its origins: respect, as I said, for editorial independence and pluralism, the continuous coverage of world news, the double refusal of any state, but also of
any privatization, without forgetting, of course, the reaffirmation of missions of general interest and in particular its role as spokesperson for the French language.
These are fundamental values, “cardinal values” that must not be questioned in any way because they make AFP unique in the world.
The best guarantee of these values is not incantation and wishful thinking, but the resolute consolidation of AFP’s position as the leading international agency, its ability to conquer new markets, to preserve and enrich its core business, weakened today by the rapid changes in the sector.
Only a stable and responsible shareholding can provide AFP with the agility it needs to constantly adapt to current market developments.
While chronic undercapitalization is unanimously recognized by all stakeholders and observers in the sector as the primary problem of the French press, why would we refuse AFP a solid shareholding, to which all French media companies aspire?
It is in order to answer these questions that I wanted to set up and convene a committee of particularly eminent and indisputable experts, who combine expertise and experience and are representative of the fields concerned by this reflection.
This committee is composed of five media personalities, five experts with complementary know-how acquired in rich and varied backgrounds:
- Henri PIGEAT, President of the Centre de Formation des Journalistes and former President of AFP who will coordinate the working group;
- Michèle COTTA, editorial writer and journalist, former President of the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication.
- Fabrice BOÉ, former President of the Prisma Presse magazine group (who apologises for not being able to be with us this morning).
- Jean-Marie COLOMBANI, journalist and columnist, president and founder of Slate.fr, former chairman of Le Monde.
- Francis TEITGEN, lawyer, former head of the Ouest-France group.
I should point out that the committee will rely on technical support from the Media Development Directorate.
On the basis of the consultations that it may undertake during its mission, the committee will submit its findings to me in April 2010.
I would like to thank each of its members warmly for having accepted this mission in the service of the development of Agence France-Presse, that is to say the very conditions of its independence.
Thank you.