Fight to Save AFP’s independence

Journalists’ and other media unions in France are fighting to preserve the independent status of Agence France-Presse, which is not only the country’s domestic agency but also a worldwide news provider working in six languages.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who flaunts his friendships with private media magnates, wants to end the special status enjoyed by AFP since 1957. He plans to turn the agency into the equivalent of a joint-stock company which would be fully owned by the state.

Staff, who have already gone on strike over the issue, fear that such a structure would be ripe for privatisation. There are parallels with other public-interest firms which Sarkozy promised not to privatise, but then did.

AFP’s statutes are enshrined in an act of parliament which defines it as neither public nor private; the unions have launched a petition calling for the essentials of the law to be preserved.

The situation is urgent, as the government wants to push the law through by early next year.

NUJ Paris branch vice chair and AFP freelancer Simon Coss said: ’News agencies are a key foundation on which a huge amount of today’s news infrastructure is built. If they go, everything else is at risk.

’AFP is one of the better French employers right now, especially for freelancers. They pay us by the ’pige’, allowing some small protection when the spectre of unemployment looms and also chipping in to help cover our our social security and pension payments. I’m not sure a privatised agency would be as keen to treat its freelancers so generously.’

The French unions call on all NUJ members to sign and publicise their petition, available in English at http://www.sos-afp.org/en. For more info: contact@sos-afp.org

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