FRANCE:PRESIDENT NICOLAS Sarkozy has provoked outrage by announcing that he will choose the president of France Télévisions, the public television conglomerate comprised of five stations and employing 11,000 people.
"Public television; France Sarkovision," was the front page headline of Libération newspaper yesterday, after Mr Sarkozy's shock announcement late on Wednesday.
"Unlike Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, Nicolas Sarkozy doesn't have the means to buy the television stations he dreams of," said Le Monde. "So he decided to take them over; with a striking blend of brutality and cynicism."
Until now, the head of France Télévisions was named by the High Audiovisual Council (CSA). Though its members are chosen by the president, the council provided a semblance of distance between the chief of state and government-financed television.
Mr Sarkozy justified the move in the jargon of free-market economics: "Things must be clear. There is one shareholder [the state]; this shareholder names the president [of France Télévisions]." L'état c'est moi. Mr Sarkozy behaved "as if public money were his own", Le Monde noted.
Culture minister Christine Albanel sounded embarrassed when she attempted to defend the measure on French radio and television. Ms Albanel called the president's self-appointed right to choose the head of public radio and television "democratic". She said the CSA's rubber stamp approval, along with the National Assembly's ability to block an appointee with a vote by three-quarters of deputies, guaranteed there could be no abuse of power.
Several commentators said the decision takes France back to the 1960s ORTF, when Charles de Gaulle maintained a direct phone line to the heads of radio and television stations.
The socialist deputy Christian Paul spoke of "a new French model, which Putin and Berlusconi will soon envy".
On January 8th Mr Sarkozy announced that he would do away with advertising on public television. Faced with widespread accusations that the move was intended to create massive profits for Martin Bouygues, the owner of TF1, France's leading private station (whom Mr Sarkozy calls "my brother"), the president created the Copé commission, which reported back to him on Wednesday.
Not only will he choose the head of France Télévisions, Mr Sarkozy will also starve public television of funding.
From January 1st, advertising will be banned from 8pm until 6am, depriving public television of hundreds of millions of euro in revenue. The ban will become total in 2011.
To make up for advertising, which accounts for one third of public television funding, Mr Sarkozy will impose a 3 per cent tax on the huge advertising profits of private channels, and will impose a 0.9 per cent tax on mobile phone and internet operators.
There is widespread speculation that these new taxes will be opposed by the European Commission. And Mr Sarkozy has made no provision for programming to fill the former advertising time, which France Télévisions estimates will cost €400 million.
To an outside observer, Mr Sarkozy appears determined to destroy public television in France. According to L'Express magazine, he last week told Patrice Duhamel, the director general of France Télévisions, "I'm going to break everything, from ceiling to floor! Finished, the comfort and cushy sinecures! It is I who will run this reform, and nobody else."
Through his friendship with Martin Bouygues, Mr Sarkozy already controls TF1. When he wants to speak on the evening news, the president reportedly calls Mr Bouygues.
Last year the deputy director of Mr Sarkozy's presidential campaign was appointed deputy director of TF1. Earlier this month Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, France's best-known news presenter, was replaced by Laurence Ferrari. Ms Ferrari successfully sued two publications that claimed she had an affair with Mr Sarkozy between his second and third marriages. He had reportedly told Mr Bouygues he wanted to see her on the evening news.
The undermining of France Télévisions will be a boon to TF1 and M6, the other leading private station, whose president, Nicolas de Tavernost, is also on familiar tu terms with Mr Sarkozy. L'Express revealed TF1 sent a "white paper" to the Élysée requesting a ban on advertising in public television and authorisation for a second advertising break during films.
Mr Sarkozy has granted both requests, as well as allowing private stations increase advertising from six to nine minutes an hour.
Le Figaro, which is owned by another friend of Mr Sarkozy, arms manufacturer Serge Dassault, more and more resembles the old Soviet newspaper Pravda. Le Figaro reported not one word of criticism of Mr Sarkozy's decisions and buried the information that the president "clarified the mode of nomination of the president of France Télévisions" on the last page of its finance section.