The channel is founded by French tax-payers, so its not
exactly a French CNN............................
"Gregory Morrow" a
écrit dans le message de news:
wgpdh.6860$sf5.5705@newsread4.news.pas.earthlink.net...
>
>
> from the December 06, 2006 edition:
> http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1206/p01s01-woeu.html
>
> From Paris, with edge: French 'CNN' beams new view
>
> By Susan Sachs | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
>
> PARIS
>
> "In 2003, France took an unforgettable beating.
>
> As the leader of global opposition to the Iraq war, it became the
> late-night
> comedian's punching bag. Its citizens suffered the revival of a term
> popularized by "The Simpsons" - "cheese-eating surrender monkeys." In a
> pointed snub, the US Congress cafeterias dubbed their crisp, oily potato
> strips "freedom fries."
>
> Stung by such Anglo-Saxon indignities, President Jacques Chirac ordered up
> a
> "French CNN." The 24-hour satellite news service debuts Wednesday.
>
> But France 24 is not merely a Francophone rendition of round-the-clock
> news.
> Instead, it aims to plunge viewers into regions and perspectives that get
> little air time elsewhere. And despite its linguistic concession to
> broadcast in English as well, the network intends to be every bit as
> proud,
> quarrelsome, and contrarian as the French believe themselves to be.
>
> "The real French 'touch' will be lots of debate and analysis of debate,"
> says Caroline de Camaret, the European affairs editor. "If there is one
> thing the French value above all, it's putting all views up for debate and
> understanding why people take certain views."
>
> France 24 will go out Wednesday via Internet streaming, then, a day later,
> by satellite, reaching Europe, Africa, the Middle East, New York, and
> Washington. Initially available in French and English, the station expects
> to add an Arabic-language channel early next year and eventually a fourth
> one in Spanish.
>
> Although France 24 hits the ground running, with a $104 million start-up
> budget guaranteed by the government, it is entering an already crowded
> field.
>
> There are the far richer pioneers like CNN International, the BBC, and the
> Arabic network Al Jazeera, which last month launched an English channel.
> But
> stations subsidized in part, or completely, by the United Arab Emirates,
> South Africa, Morocco, China, and Germany, among others, have also
> launched
> international news operations.
>
> The mission of France 24, according to the charter which its staffers must
> sign, is to spread French values, culture, and "art de vivre" throughout
> the
> world, as well as a sense of "debate, confrontation, and contradiction."
> It
> is also banking on the novelty of its "French regard" on the news,
> including
> deeper coverage of Europe, Africa, and the Arab world than its competitors
> provide.
>
> "What people tend to get now are images and news that are almost too
> rapid,"
> says Agnès Levallois, the editor of the station's Arabic service and
> Middle
> East coverage. "They are often caricatures and often very much the same
> from
> station to station."
>
> That is especially true in the coverage of Iraq and the Arab world in
> general, where, she says, a degree of jingoism and self- censorship taints
> the otherwise professional journalism on other satellite stations.
>
> "There are images you just won't see on CNN because Americans don't want
> to
> see certain images on their television screens, and that's
> understandable,"
> says Ms. Levallois. "But we are in Paris and we have real freedom of
> expression to raise different questions. And we have diplomatic liberty.
> We
> don't have the same constraints as the Anglo-Saxon stations and CNN which
> are linked to American forces in the region."
>
> France 24 has only a handful of foreign correspondents, compared with the
> dozens of bureaus operated by competitors like the BBC. It will rely on
> journalists in the field who work for more established French news
> organizations and especially its new managing partners, the private TF1 TV
> channel, and public French media outlets.
>
> But much of its content will be produced in the sprawling newsroom on the
> western edge of Paris where the 170 journalists of France 24, most of them
> multilingual, have set up shop among state-of-the-art equipment. The
> average
> age of the staff is 33. Little signs of their insouciance are evident
> everyw
> here: A picture of Marilyn Monroe identifies the women's bathrooms and one
> of Albert Einstein marks the men's.
>
> The European Union summit in mid-December, which is expected to focus on
> Turkey and its faltering bid for EU membership, will be a distinctive
> testing ground for the notion of a French look on events.
>
> Ms. De Camaret, for example, says she wants to get beyond the rather
> sneering and often negative coverage of the EU found on the Anglo-Saxon
> media. Regarding Turkey, she adds, France 24 will examine the mood in
> specific European countries as well as Turkey's own internal conflicts.
>
> "I think it's important to not only give the CNN point of view - that
> Turkey
> should be in Europe because it has a strong Army and it's a bridge between
> East and West - but also something more nuanced," says De Camaret. "I want
> to have debate and analysis on why there is this reversal of opinion in
> European countries."
>
> In some ways, France 24 harkens back to the competitive philosophy of the
> cold war when the US and the Soviet Union, among others, created Radio
> Free
> Europe and Radio Moscow to promote their own ideological values and
> culture.
>
> The French language itself is a beloved part of that culture. But the
> journalists at the station see no irony in expressing a French view on the
> world in languages other than French.
>
> "The language is not the point," says De Camaret. "The point is the
> message."
>
>
>
>
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