A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #375 - Anti-fascism - Media Empires: Early Victories Against Bolloré and Stérin (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Resistance is organizing-and beginning to bear fruit-in the face of 
attempts by several far-right billionaires to gain ideological control 
over the media and cultural production. Here is a look at the stakes of 
this struggle and some of its recent victories.
Bolloré-one of the country's wealthiest business leaders and a 
traditionalist Catholic-has harnessed his fortune to a project of 
cultural and media domination, a strategy theorized as early as the 
1970s by think tanks like GRECE[1]. The intellectual far right was 
taking stock of a series of failures: the Maurrasian anti-republicanism 
of the 1930s; Pétain's French State and collaboration with the Nazis 
(extending to French volunteers joining the Waffen-SS); lost colonial 
wars; and the failed coup attempts by military officers and OAS 
terrorists opposing Algerian independence. The political manifestation 
of this ideological reconquest would be the unification of various 
fascist figures and movements within the National Front.

Bolloré has patiently built a dominant group in the publishing sector, 
covering school and university textbooks as well as books for children 
and adults. To boost sales, he also owns the largest book distributor: 
Hachette Livre Distribution. Added to this are numerous media outlets, a 
journalism school, and businesses spanning video games, television, 
cinema, music, live entertainment, and advertising. Finally, he holds a 
monopoly on Relay bookstores located in train stations, subways, and 
airports, where he ensures that titles he owns-or those that suit his 
agenda-are prominently displayed. This includes a racist and homophobic 
magazine, *La Furia*, which-having lost its official press certification 
following a petition-was no longer supposed to be displayed, yet 
continued to be stocked by Relay shops[2].

The withdrawal of *La Furia* is a small victory. However, much remains 
to be done to restore the true meaning of the guarantee of pluralism as 
legislated at the time of the Liberation. Located within public 
transport facilities, Relay bookstores ought to be treated as public 
services themselves. For censorship in a bourgeois democracy is 
insidious; it operates not at the level of generating ideas, but through 
the financial means required to distribute them. The major democratic 
and financial issue at stake is the distribution of-and public access 
to-newspapers, magazines, and books. The Bichet Law, born of the 
compromises made at the Liberation, enabled "small" publications to be 
sold at the same retail outlets as "major" ones, thanks to a system of 
cost-sharing for transport. Today, that law has been stripped of its 
essential mechanisms. What we need for the democratic expression of 
diverse schools of thought is a genuine public distribution service-one 
that allows publications like *Alternative libertaire* to reach the 
network at affordable rates.

The same issues apply to television, radio, and social media. Faced with 
the dangers of AI and "fake news," debate has reignited around the idea 
of a "public service Facebook." It is a good idea-provided, for 
instance, that ARCOM[3](the body responsible for regulating these 
sectors) does not merely fine outlets like CNews and Europe 1 for their 
repeated violations, but actually cuts off their access, as the law 
stipulates! The mobilization by France Inter employees against the 
hiring of Charles Sapin points the way forward. The latter-deputy editor 
of *Valeurs actuelles*, a publication owned by Stérin (the 
"mini-Bolloré") and repeatedly convicted for racist remarks and 
incitement to hatred-will not become a public broadcaster commentator. 
Bravo! Let us push back against this grip step by step and reject 
fascist infiltration!

Jean-Yves (UCL Limousin)

Submit

[1]Research and Study Group for European Civilization.

[2]More info at Desarmerbollore.net.

[3]Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Empires-mediatiques-Premieres-victoires-contre-Bollore-et-Sterin
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