Europe 1 with AFP 11:33 a.m., March 31, 2022

On Thursday, the Senate's commission of inquiry into media concentration called for modernizing "outdated" rules, "an absolute necessity in a world threatened by disinformation".

In a 381-page report, the senators put forward 32 proposals to better regulate the media landscape.

The Senate Inquiry Committee on Media Concentration called on Thursday to modernize "obsolete" rules, "an absolute necessity in a world threatened by disinformation".

In a 381-page report, published amid concerns about press pluralism in the face of the French media's race for gigantism - between the planned TF1/M6 merger or the onslaught of Vivendi (owner of Canal+, Prisma Media , the leading magazine press group in France and Havas) on Lagardère (Europe 1, JDD,

Paris Match

)--, the senators are issuing 32 proposals to better regulate the media landscape.

Reform the law on freedom of communication

Among these, the strengthening of independence and ethics within the media by means of a system including an independent administrator, Arcom (ex-CSA), audiovisual and digital regulator, and ethics committees.

Another proposal: the organization of a big debate this year in Parliament where the government would come to present its conclusions to reform the law relating to the freedom of communication of 1986, voted at a time when the giants of the Internet did not exist.

The government would present the orientations it envisages following this Senate report and that on the same subject commissioned by the Ministries of Finance and Culture, which must also be submitted in the spring.

In their report, the senators propose to "revise the conditions for granting aid to pluralism and modernization by taking into account the financial situation of the groups to which the candidate titles are attached".

It remains to be seen what the president who leaves the polls will do with this report.

The Senate commission summoned the major players in the sector

Between the end of November and the beginning of March, this commission made up of 21 senators had conducted 48 public hearings, summoning 82 people to the Senate.

Among them, all the major players in the sector, ranging from major industrial bosses, media owners, such as Bernard Arnault, Vincent Bolloré, Martin Bouygues, to independent media and unions, were heard.

In the middle of the presidential campaign, the influence of these tycoons on various newspapers, radio stations and television channels, arouses fears for the freedom of the press and its pluralism.