French TV, radio hit by strike over new law

By James Mackenzie

PARIS, Nov 25 (Reuters) - French public sector broadcast staff went on strike on Tuesday in protest at proposed changes they say will benefit private television stations and increase President Nicolas Sarkozy's power over the media.

The plans, which will end advertising on publicly owned France Televisions, have been heavily criticised by unions and the opposition Socialists who say they will weaken the financial foundations of public service television and lead to job losses.

Radio and television programmes were interrupted or curtailed at various times during the day and the main evening news programme on France 2 television was likely to be replaced by a shortened version, the station said.

As well as reforming the funding of public television, the proposed new law would give the government the power to appoint the head of France Televisions, who had previously been named by the CSA, an independent audiovisual supervisory body.

Sarkozy's centre-right government says the measures will give France 2 and the other public television channels a sounder financial base, protect them from "ratings tyranny" and encourage more innovative programming.

"The reform which I will present before your Assembly is certainly the most important for the public broadcasting sector in more than 20 years," Culture Minister Christine Albanel told parliament shortly before deputies began debating the proposals.

But the opposition says the law will mainly help France's biggest private television broadcaster TF1, owned by Sarkozy's close friend Martin Bouygues, and place the nominally independent public sector media under direct state control.

"The operation is practically complete: in one year, through a law and a few amendments, Nicolas Sarkozy will have placed almost the entire French audio-visual sector under his influence," the left-wing Liberation daily, a sharp Sarkozy critic, said in an editorial.

Sarkozy's friendships with media entrepreneurs like Bouygues, Arnaud Lagardere or Vincent Bollore have attracted controversy ever since he took off for a holiday on Bollore's luxury yacht immediately after his 2007 election victory.

Under the proposals, outlined earlier this year, advertising on public television would not be allowed after 8 p.m. from January and would be banned entirely from 2011.

The move will create a funding gap for the four main state TV channels which will be largely filled by a levy on private broadcasters and Internet providers and by government support.

Culture Minister Christine Albanel said 450 million euros ($579.3 million) had been earmarked to compensate for the loss of advertising revenues and the sum was assured, whether or not revenues from the levy were enough on their own.

"Whatever happens, the 450 million euros are guaranteed for 2009, 2010, 2011," she told parliament. (Additional reporting by Gerard Bon and Gregory Blachier)

(Editing by Richard Balmforth)