A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #373 - Antifascism - Audiovisual Media: The Far Right at War Against the Press and Culture (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The Alloncle Commission's attack on public broadcasting has served as a 
reminder of the hatred the far right harbors against the public press 
and independent media. But it is only the tip of the iceberg of the far 
right's agenda regarding the press and culture, which it intends to 
erase and bring to heel. --- On April 27, the Commission of Inquiry into 
the Neutrality, Operation, and Financing of Public Broadcasting, more 
commonly known as the Alloncle Commission after its rapporteur, the 
far-right parliamentarian Charles Alloncle, concluded its work. This 
sham commission served for over four months as a platform for the far 
right to promote its views on the press, ranging from attacks on public 
broadcasting to the rejection of all independent investigative journalism.

At the heart of this circus lies a recurring far-right idea: that public 
broadcasting is nothing more than a haven for leftists, completely 
ideologically locked down and anti-democratic, where a small elite 
occupies positions amongst themselves. While this idea might elicit a 
smile from the left, given the increasingly right-wing leanings of 
France Télévisions and Radio France, it is in reality merely the 
narrative veneer for a long-standing project of the National Rally (RN) 
and other fascist parties: to privatize all public broadcasting, but 
also to eliminate all subsidies and aid to the press. In short, to hand 
over the entire information sector to the private sector.

False Solutions and Real Problems
This project aims both to muzzle the investigative services that 
regularly expose the shady dealings of the far right, and to eliminate 
political pluralism in the media as much as possible: there's no need 
for a state-run press when a few billionaires are happy to finance a 
small media empire aligned with fascist ideas. This private press is 
also actively involved in attacking public broadcasting: Radio France 
and France Télévisions filed a complaint in November against CNews, 
Europe 1, and the JDD-all owned by Bolloré-for a "smear campaign" 
conducted in conjunction with the opening of the Commission of Inquiry.

The Alloncle Commission resulted this June in a proposed law "aimed at 
preventing conflicts of interest" in public media[1]. The maneuver is 
perverse, using the argument of transparency to contribute to weakening 
public broadcasting, paving the way for its privatization, a goal the 
far right dreams of. But it must also be said that this approach relies 
on the real flaws and dysfunctions of public broadcasting: the 
exorbitant salaries of on-air personalities, conflicts of interest, and 
cronyism are all realities that serve as stepping stones for the far 
right. These are situations that governments have never addressed; they 
have even exacerbated them. After all, can we really count on the State 
to clean up public broadcasting when governments and elected officials 
will always have an interest in maintaining control over its operation? 
Neither state-run nor private, a libertarian alternative to the current 
functioning of public broadcasting remains to be invented. It will 
undoubtedly have to be built from the ground up, through direct 
democracy, and be subject to collective oversight of its actions. 
Considering these alternatives is not an abstract and utopian exercise, 
but a necessity for offering a counter-narrative to the demagogic and 
authoritarian attacks of the far right. These attacks are far from 
limited to France: wherever it gains power, the far right seeks to 
attack public broadcasting and independent media.

Fascists everywhere, free press nowhere.
In the United States, Donald Trump, in the first months of his second 
term, had an executive order passed calling for the defunding of two 
major public broadcasting networks[2], the Public Broadcasting Service 
(PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). The reason? These media outlets 
were allegedly too biased and cost the state too much: the same 
arguments as in France. In England, the BBC is under fire, facing 
similar accusations. Following a controversy surrounding a video montage 
of a speech by Donald Trump, its director general and its head of news 
were forced to resign in November.

Puy du Fou is a theme park founded by Philippe de Villiers that 
perfectly illustrates the far-right's vision of culture: the 
transformation of history into a national, Christian, and monarchical 
myth, the glorification of the powerful, and contempt for popular struggles.

Credits: Wikimedia/Midx1004

But in France, attacks from the far right are not limited to public 
broadcasting. On April 8, the National Center for Cinema and the Moving 
Image (CNC) announced it was suspending its Social Media Creation 
Support Fund. Formerly known as CNC Talents, this program had been 
subsidizing online content creation to the tune of EUR3 million per year 
since 2017. Many creators of popular science and current affairs content 
benefited from it, as did organizations like the anti-racist media 
outlet Histoires Crépues and the newspaper Streetpress. The reason for 
this suspension? A wave of far-right attacks based on accusations of 
bias, amplified by figures like Marion Maréchal and François-Xavier 
Bellamy, which resulted in threats against CNC staff.

Social Imposture
Whether in the National Assembly, against the CNC (National Center for 
Cinema and the Moving Image), or in the National Rally's platform, the 
voices of the far right actually convey a unified and coherent vision of 
the press and culture. They see them only as tools in the service of 
nationalism and the authority of the State and capital. Any other 
conception of journalism or cultural creation is perceived as, at best, 
useless, and at worst, harmful. In the National Rally's platform, the 
press is only mentioned in connection with the privatization of public 
broadcasting. The word "culture" itself does not appear, replaced by the 
sole reference to "heritage": the preservation of a few vestiges of the 
past, supposedly embodying the national narrative[3]. The message has 
the merit of being clear: for the National Rally, a good artist is a 
dead artist.

Wherever it has been elected locally, the National Rally has attacked 
local media and cultural funding, defunding public libraries, cultural 
events, and spaces for teaching artistic practices. The National Rally's 
rhetoric is once again a sham: while it vehemently denounces the 
insularity of cultural circles, its proposals would only exacerbate this 
problem, making culture even more elitist and inaccessible. A perfectly 
consistent policy for a party whose platform and driving force is 
inequality.

N. Bartosek (UCL Alsace)

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[1]Anne-Charlotte Dusseaux, "Public broadcasting: an Alloncle bill 
arrives in the National Assembly," LCP, June 24, 2026. 
https://lcp.fr/actualites/audiovisuel-public-une-proposition-de-loi-alloncle-arrive-dans-l-hemicycle-437838

[2]"Donald Trump orders the State to stop funding American public media 
outlets PBS and NPR," Le Monde, May 2, 2025. 
https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/05/02/etats-unis-donald-trump-ordonne-a-l-etat-de-cesser-de-financer-les-medias-publics-pbs-et-npr_6602272_3210.html

[3]For more details on the National Rally's vision of culture and media, 
see the press release "Let's reject a culture brought to heel by the far 
right!", published by SUD Culture et médias Solidaires on July 3, 2024. 
https://solidaires.org/sinformer-et-agir/actualites-et-mobilisations/sectorielles/refusons-une-culture-mise-au-pas-par-lextreme-droite/

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Audiovisuel-L-extreme-droite-en-guerre-contre-la-presse-et-la-culture
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