Audiovisual reform: Rachida Dati zapped, once again

Rachida Dati's first three attempts to get the audiovisual reform she is calling for passed in the National Assembly had been chaotic. The fourth, this Monday afternoon, ended in a political humiliation of rare violence , certainly against a Minister of Culture: rejected beforehand – therefore even before its examination by the deputies – by 94 votes to 38, the text united the left and the RN against it , finding support only from the few members of the government coalition who had not conveniently abandoned their posts at that moment.

This resounding failure can first of all be explained by the mistrust inspired by the anti-cultural and often anti-democratic populism claimed by Rachida Dati, mired in various and varied corruption cases and willingly whistles the hounds against journalists who are interested in them, as evidenced by her pitiful attacks against the journalist Patrick Cohen , and her countless lawsuits brought against Libération , the Nouvel Obs, Mediapart, the Canard enchaîné and many others.

But this debacle also heralds a rejection of an inexplicable and useless reform. The "more centralized" organization imagined by Dati "for the sake of efficiency" is the same aborted idea of ​​a "holding company" wanted in 1996 by Philippe Douste-Blazy and even by Jacques Chirac in the 1980s .

This obsession of the French right was based on its admiration for private broadcasting. The prodigious rise in recent years in audiences for Radio France and France Télévisions productions has proven the aberration of this false consensus, rejected once again in the Assembly, where a better-written law—" The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious human rights "—was passed in 1789, with a majority that Rachida Dati can only envy.