Conversation between Aurore Bergé and Jérôme Soulet

The Member of Parliament for Yvelines and spokesperson for the En Marche movement was back at the MIFC to take stock of the future of audiovisual regulation in the digital age. 

Two main topics were at the heart of the discussion between Aurore Bergé and Jérôme Soulet: the reform of the audiovisual sector and the challenges of her new mission around the emancipation and cultural inclusion of all people of all ages and in all territories. 

While she herself acknowledges that the title is a little long and the mission is a little full, knowing that there are, roughly speaking, two of them to review France's cultural policy, it is with a certain enthusiasm that the spokesperson for the En Marche movement described her mission. The aim is to restore culture to a common bond throughout the country in order to combat identity withdrawal as effectively as possible or to help integration as effectively as possible. And beyond the conception of this common culture, the most difficult thing will then be to maintain it over time and in an egalitarian way throughout the territory. 

However, since this mission is only just beginning, the member of Parliament for Yvelines came back to audiovisual reform. This bill, which must above all preserve diversity, will be presented to the Council of Ministers at the end of November and debated in the National Assembly at the beginning of February. Three main issues are at the heart of this reform: 

1. Content regulation in the digital age to be rethought, particularly with the creation of Arcom, a merger of CSA and Hadopi. 
2. Financing creation and diversity, in particular by taxing platforms while strengthening France's uniqueness in its quest for independence and diversity
3. Public service broadcasting and, in particular, the exhibition of cinema and live entertainment so that television remains this place of access to culture. 

On the subject of heritage works, Aurore Bergé returned to the need to transpose the SMA directive, which requires platforms to have 30% of European films in their catalogues. But the question is not so much the number of works available but also their exhibition, which will be the next battle. The other battle, much more present, is the battle against piracy. This will be the role of Arcom even if, at present, no sanction system, based on gradation, has proved to be really effective. Speaking on her own behalf and not on behalf of the government, the deputy explained that she wanted to see a transcript of the court decision rendered for the original site, applied to mirror sites when they occur. For a faster sanction. The very idea, for her, would be to set up a criminal transaction, after warnings, which would be much more dissuasive. "It is not popular to punish people, but it is also necessary to restore the value of culture and works," she said.