The role of the State

The most original feature of French media is perhaps to be found in the role of the State which to a large extent has shaped the current situation of the broadcasting media and plays a supporting role in the survival of national papers with strong political commitments but devoid of sufficient advertising resources.

Media broadcasting emerged in France as the result of the initiative of wireless set manufacturers (Radiola) or of publishing groups (Le Petit Parisien). The government lost no time in asserting the State's monopoly over 'the sending and the receiving of radio-electrical signals of all kinds' (1923 Finance Bill) on the basis of the scarcity of national radio frequencies considered as a national asset. This restrictive approach to a new medium, enshrined in an article of the Finance Bill of 1923, was in fact the logical continuation of the traditional official position defined as early as 1837 which restricted the use of telegraphic signals to the suppliers licensed by the government.

In 1923, however, the law allowed the government to grant licences to private radio broadcasters under the control of the Ministry for Post, Telegraph and Telephone (PTT). Radio-Paris was in fact the only private radio station licensed by the administration, later to be relaunched by the State under the title of Poste National. By 1929, broadcasting was taken away from the supervision of the PTT Ministry to be put under the sole control of an Information Commissar directly responsible to the Cabinet (Council of Ministers).