The Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal said on Tuesday he was “ready” to look at the trail of a “tax allocation” to finance public broadcasting to replace the fee, the abolition of which raises concerns about the guarantee of independence of the media concerned.

The abolition of the fee is included in the amending finance bill currently being examined by Parliament and several amendments tabled by the majority thus propose to allocate "a fraction" of the VAT, for an amount of approximately 3.7 billion euros, to the financing of public broadcasting.

Ready to revise his copy

“I am ready to look at this track and probably to give it a favorable opinion during the examination of the text if it can make it possible to reinforce the guarantees for the public audiovisual sector on the means and on the visibility”, declared Gabriel Attal on Franceinfo.

The minister also wanted to “reassure” the Constitutional Council, which could challenge the text, responding to an administrative report demanding “increased guarantees for the independence of public broadcasting”.

In this report, published Friday by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) and the General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs (IGAC), fears are reported, in particular about a loss of independence of these media if the audiovisual budget must be voted on annually by Parliament.

Financing public broadcasting

The subsidy to public audiovisual companies “will be paid in one go from the beginning of the year”, affirmed Gabriel Attal.

He also guaranteed "visibility" on the budget for the coming years, "so that they know what the trajectory of their budget is going to be and so that they can make choices", he said.

For Emmanuel Macron, the fee – which finances France Télévisions, Radio France, INA, TV5Monde and France Médias Monde – does not guarantee the independence of these media since their budgets are supplemented by the State to the tune of “several hundred million euros per year" for ten years.

He proposed during the electoral campaign to set up a multiannual budget to finance public broadcasting, in order to guarantee its independence.

Many debates

The abolition of the fee is the subject of fierce debates in the National Assembly, the Nupes having tabled dozens of amendments, favoring the allocation of a progressive tax according to the level of income of the citizens.

PS elected officials also announced that they had tabled a bill for "an audiovisual, universal and progressive contribution" to finance public broadcasting rather than the abolition of the fee promised by Emmanuel Macron.

Policy

Public audiovisual: PS elected officials for a "universal and progressive" contribution

  • Economy

  • Public audiovisual

  • Gabriel Attal

  • Tax

  • Emmanuel Macron