Fleur Pellerin, Minister of Culture and Communication, welcomes the remarkable success of the call for projects «Local Media», launched on April 14 as part of the Interdepartmental Committee on Equality and Citizenship on March 6.
A sign of the tremendous civic energy that animates the territories, 462 projects have been proposed. This profusion of proposals made it difficult to choose the selection committee* which met on 8 July. Following a collegial appraisal, 114 projects were selected as part of the one million euro call requested by the Minister.
Mostly supported by associative structures, the projects selected are extremely diverse (web tv, web radio, newspapers, news websites...). They all demonstrate a search for quality and professionalization, taking care to involve the youngest or most marginalized populations in the production of their content.
In line with the issues identified in the call for projects, initiatives taking place in rural areas or within the scope of city policy received special attention. The production of local or local information was also a decisive factor in the committee’s assessment.
Many projects focused exclusively on media literacy, information literacy and freedom of expression. Some were deemed to be of very high quality. Also, the issues they raise may lead the Ministry to develop for them a specific accompaniment.
In response to the success of this call for projects, Fleur Pellerin wanted to reaffirm the announcement of the creation of a permanent fund to support local media from 2016. This fund will encourage media building social bonds in the most forgotten places of the Republic, promoting local information and the participation of all and especially, of the youngest.
* The selection committee was composed of representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Communication (General Secretariat and Directorate-General for Media and Cultural Industries), the Regional Directorates for Cultural Affairs, the General Commission for Equality of Territories (CGET) as well as qualified personalities including journalists and activists.