2023-10-03 18:30:00
Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise, the States General of Information were launched this Tuesday, October 3. The government has opened a platform to collect the opinions of the French on the reliability of information, the independence of journalists, and even the protection of sources.
After the Great Citizen Debate and the opening of the application “Now“, among other democratic consultations, here comes the expected General States of Information. Launched today, they will last until the summer of 2024 and aim to give rise to proposals for legislative modifications as well as recommendations to the sector.
To do this, the French are called upon to make proposals during an online consultation open until November 12, directly on a dedicated site. Five working and reflection groups are already being set up: “information space and technological innovation”, “citizenship, information and democracy”, “future of news media and journalism”, “fight against foreign interference” and “State and regulation”.
Ten priorities were set. First, “ensure that the platforms put in place systems for reliability and information”, because today’s young people mainly get their information on social networks. Then, “protecting the right to secrecy of sources”, a subject propelled to the forefront by the recent detention of journalist Ariane Lavrilleux – because of her investigations into French arms deliveries abroad, and on Operation Sirli, a French intelligence mission in Egypt. This subject has aroused great concern abroad, which has led the Courrier international that it is a symbol of a “generalized decline in press freedom in France”.
Finally, it will be necessary to “modernize the rules regarding media pluralism and concentration”. The subject did not seem essential when RT France was banned on the European continent, but it has become so again since the JDD laboriously changed owners – and political side.
These States General must result in “concrete proposals” to “guarantee the right to information in the digital age”, assures Christophe Deloire, general delegate of their independent steering committee, during the launch press conference in Paris .
“We will propose” but it will be “up to the political power to decide”, however noted the president of the committee, Bruno Lasserre, of Cada (Commission for Access to Administrative Documents).
Ultimately, the committee should bring together the opinions of citizens, as well as those of many professionals. However, not everyone is reassured about the merits of this initiative. In a joint press release, four journalists’ unions (SNJ, SNJ-CGT, CFDT and FO) said they “feared that these States General will amount to nothing more than a new communication operation”, demanding to be associated with it.
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