Pourquoi France 24? Pourquoi pas?

"On Wednesday night, the Place de la Concorde and the Tuileries gardens in the heart of Paris will be the venue for the channel's grand champagne launch party as Mr Chirac plays host to 1,000 invited guests, who will watch a big screen displaying the new TV station's first bulletin." BBC News, 6 December 2006. "There are images you just won't see on CNN because Americans don't want to see certain images on their television screens, and that's understandable. But we are in Paris and we have real freedom of expression to raise different questions. And we have diplomatic liberty. We don't have the same constraints as the Anglo-Saxon stations and CNN which are linked to American forces in the region." Christian Sceinece Monitor, 6 December 2006. "While France 24 spreads French values around the world, most of its technical infrastructure is American: computers from HP, office software from Microsoft, video and news editing software from Avid, web content management from Magnolia, video hosting from Akamai, and cameras from Thomson Grass Valley." Luc Van Braekel, The Brussels Journal, 6 December 2006. "It is an unprecedented partnership between France Télévisions, the country's public broadcaster, and TF1, one of Europe's largest private TV channels, two groups which are normally rivals. ... France 24's images will largely come from its parent TV stations as well as other partners such as the agency Agence France Presse and Radio France International, prompting allegations that it will just be a round-up of other channels' content." The Guardian, 6 December 2006. "The producers say that around 20 percent of the broadcast time will be taken up with French lifestyle items - culture, food and so on. Sounds like an expensive state-funded version of the Travel Show: But as anyone who has lived in France will tell you, culture is politics." EURSOC, 6 December 2006. "France24 will treat issues that are more sensitive to an Arab and Muslim audience such as religion and women's rights 'respecting certain princiciples.' 'We do not have any particular qualms and intend to approch issues including Islam in France with the same professionalism and objectivity.'" AKI, 6 December 2006. See also www.france24.fr. Posted: 06 Dec 2006 Permalink Print