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The news through French eyes
Level 1
Elementary
Key words
1
Find the information
2
Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible.
1. How many journalists will work for France 24?
2. What is the annual budget of CNN?
3. How long will each news bulletin be on France 24?
4. How often will a news bulletin be broadcast?
5. When did Mr Chirac first have the idea of a French 24-hour news channel?
6. How many viewers does France 24 plan to have?
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The news through French eyes: 
Chirac TV takes on ‘Anglo-Saxon 
imperialism’
by Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
6 December, 2006
There are several 24-hour television news 
channels which broadcast around the world. 
They include the American channel CNN and 
the British channels BBC World and Sky News. 
These channels broadcast the news in English. 
Now there is a new 24-hour news channel which 
will broadcast the news in French. France 24 is 
the world’s first French 24-hour television news 
channel.
France 24 will report international news ‘through 
French eyes’. It will offer a French view of world 
events from the Middle East to Madagascar, 
and will also show the French way of life. It will 
explain the news with typical French TV debates 
where philosophers discuss the latest events. 
Test programmes have included topics such as 
Rwanda, the French rugby team and French 
wine.
At least 20% of the programmes will be about 
culture and lifestyle, including everything 
from world museums to cuisine, fashion and 
French chocolate. France 24 will broadcast 
on two channels at the same time, in English 
and French. But broadcasting in English does 
not mean the channel will be less French. The 
managers of France 24 hope the English debates 
will be even more heated than the French. The 
channel also plans to broadcast in Arabic and 
Spanish. 
The idea for a French 24-hour news channel 
came from President Chirac. He first had the 
idea when he was prime minister in the late 
1980s. In 2003 Mr Chirac criticised the American 
preparations for war in Iraq. Television and 
radio stations in the USA and Britain attacked 
him for this. It was clear there was a need for 
a news channel with a French voice. Now Mr 
Chirac hopes that France 24 will be one of the 
projects that continue France’s struggle against 
the world power of the USA. Earlier this year he 
announced plans for a Franco-German search 
engine to compete with Google and Yahoo, 
called Quaero, Latin for I search. 
The president himself will launch France 24 
at a celebration in Paris but the station’s chief 
executive, Alain de Pouzilhac, says the station 
will not become ‘Chirac TV’. “We have public 
money but we are an independent channel,” he 
says. Presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy will 
also not be able to use the channel to broadcast 
his views. “I know Nicolas very well. I don’t 
believe we will have a problem with that. He 
hasn’t called me,” said Mr Pouzilhac. 
France 24 hopes to have a similar number of 
viewers to al-Jazeera’s English service, about 
75 million households in more than 90 countries. 
It describes itself as a ‘third way’ between al-
Jazeera and CNN. 
But the birth of France 24 has not been easy. 
It is a partnership between France Télévisions, 
France’s public broadcaster, and TF1, one 
of Europe’s largest private TV channels, two 
groups which are usually rivals. There have 
been protests by trade unions and management 
disagreements – there have even been 
disagreements over what name to call the 
channel. Some French politicians believe the 
station will not earn enough money to be a 
success. 
Most of France 24’s television pictures will come 
from its parent TV stations as well as other