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Protest against "radio fee killer" Macron in Paris
Photo: Thomas Coex / AFP
In the morning, only music programs were broadcast on the radio stations, the television stations showed repetitions: Public radio and television stations in France went on strike on Tuesday in protest against the government's planned abolition of broadcasting fees.
French President Emmanuel Macron wants to abolish them to boost the economy.
The license fee of 138 euros in France is only paid by TV owners.
The programs can be followed for free on other devices.
The trade unions fear that abolition would result in a loss of revenue of three billion euros and do not trust the government's promise that this will be compensated.
The measure and the planned funding from the general state budget instead led to the impoverishment of television and radio stations and exposed these channels to arbitrariness and constant political pressure, according to a protest call by the unions, as reported by the broadcaster France Info.
There is a risk of public broadcasting being broken up in favor of a private sector ruled by media billionaires.
That is unbearable.
Discussion of merger of several publicly funded media companies
A restructuring of the broadcasting system has been on President Macron's agenda for years.
In addition to the programs of Radio France and France Télévisions, the current fees also finance the research and archive institute INA, the internationally oriented news channels France 24 and RFI and the French share in the German-French culture channel Arte.
In addition, the responsible culture minister, Rima Abdul-Malak, was open to discussing a merger of several publicly funded media companies – a proposal made by politicians from the conservative Républicains.
The President of Radio France spoke out against it.
The abolition of broadcasting fees is part of a law to boost purchasing power that is due to be presented to the cabinet next week.
Since Macron's electoral alliance lost an absolute majority in the general election, the vote on the law will probably take longer than planned.
feb/AFP/dpa