France

[FR] CSA Adopts Report on Access to Audiovisual Media by Associations

IRIS 2011-4:1/26

Amélie Blocman

Légipresse

Access to the audiovisual media is important for associations and the causes they defend, as they are able in this way to make their action more widely known and, for those that appeal to public generosity, to make potential donors more aware of the issues involved and persuade them to donate. In 2009, in the run-up to the Téléthon (a programme lasting several hours organised by the French association to combat myopathies (Association Française contre les Myopathies), the aim of which is to collect funds), there was some discussion on the place that a cause defended by a specific association could be given within the audiovisual media, highlighting the risk of rivalry between associations or competition between causes of general interest. In this context, the Government asked the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (audiovisual regulatory body - CSA) to look into access to the audiovisual media by associations. A committee was set up for this purpose in January 2010, comprising members of the CSA, media specialists, specialists with experience of working with associations, and representatives of the public authorities. The committee heard a large number of representatives of associations and the media, in order to appraise their expertise and their expectations. It used this information as the basis for its report, adopted in January 2011 and submitted on 2 March 2011, which contains ten proposals based on three essential principles: equity, clarity, and the promotion of commitment on the part of citizens. The proposals include giving more air time to the people involved in the associations (by increasing and diversifying the number of special broadcasts in their favour), identifying clearly on the air the purpose of the appeal for donations, and reporting on the air on the use made of the money collected. The committee also recommends that each audiovisual medium should define and make public its criteria of eligibility for associations wishing to be present on the air, and that in their communications the associations should abide by the rules governing audiovisual ethics. It also wants to see an end to the practice of selling advertising space in exchange for reporting, as this creates confusion between firstly information and programmes, and secondly between advertising and sponsorship. These proposals do not have any compulsive value, and indeed the members of the CSA recalled the freedom and joint responsibility of the audiovisual media and the associations.