Notice of January 4, 2007 on the financing of television broadcasts by local authorities
Local authorities play an active role in financing cultural, audiovisual and sporting events for promotional purposes, under the supervision of the administrative court, which verifies the existence of a local public interest. As part of the audiovisual aspect of their communications, local authorities participate in financing television programs, through financial or material contributions, in order to promote their name, their image, their activities or their actions.
In this specific field, the attention of the French Superior Audiovisual Council has been summoned to the rules applicable to such financing, particularly when an official from the local authority financing the television program is invited to speak on set.
The purpose of this notice is to remind television service editors of the existence of a specific legal managerial framework in this area, and to set out the resulting obligations.
This notice applies to all television service editors, with the exception of local authorities or groups of local authorities which directly edit a television service providing information on local life, in accordance with the first paragraph of article L.1426-1 of the French General Code for Local Authorities.
This notice applies to all programs with the exception of drama and corporate communication programs. The latter are expressly governed by schemes included in agreements between the French Superior Audiovisual Council and television service editors. Programs are defined as program elements preceded and closed by credits.
Lastly, this notice does not apply during election periods, when the stricter rules of the electoral code and the recommendations issued by the French Superior Audiovisual Council to audiovisual operators take precedence.
I/ LEGAL FRAMEWORK
1) Legislative requirements
The financing of television programs by local authorities must abide by the ban on political advertising stipulated in article 14 of law no. 86-1067 of September 30, 1986. Although not defined by law, programs or parts of programs promoting a political party, personality or ideology may be considered as such.
The principles of honesty, independence and plurality of information enshrined in articles 1, 3-1, 13, 28, 33-1 and 43-11 of the law of September 30, 1986 must also be abided by.
2) Regulatory obligations
Article 17 of Decree no. 92-280 of March 27, 1992, as amended, on advertising, sponsorship and teleshopping, defines sponsorship as "any contribution by a company or an artificial person, public or private, not engaged in radio broadcasting or the production of audiovisual works, to the financing of television programs, in order to promote its name, its brand, its image, its activities or its achievements".
The financing of television programs by an artificial person under public law, such as a local authority, for promotional purposes, must comply with the rules on sponsorship set out in articles 18 and 20 of the same decree.
With regard to the requirements to be met by sponsored programs, article 18 of the decree sets out three rules in particular, concerning the influence, identification and mention of the sponsor:
- Paragraph I of this article makes provision for the sponsor not to influence the content and programming of the program in a way that could undermine the responsibility and editorial independence of the television company or service;
- paragraph III of this article stipulates that sponsored programs must be clearly identified as such at the beginning or end of the program by mention of the sponsor's name, company name, sector of activity, brands, or by the image factors and distinctive signs usually associated with it, such as acronym, logotype and call sign, to the exclusion of any advertising slogan or presentation of the product itself or its packaging;
- Paragraph IV of this article makes provision for the sponsor to be mentioned during the sponsored program and in the trailers, only insofar as it is specific and discreet, confines itself to mentioning the contribution made by the sponsor, and does not use means of identification other than those mentioned in III.
With regard to programs that may be sponsored, article 20 of the aforementioned decree prohibits sponsorship of news broadcasts and political news programmes.
II/ FRENCH SUPERIOR AUDIOVISUAL COUNCIL RECOMMENDATIONS
It is clear from the above-mentioned schemes that :
- Political advertising programs are prohibited;
- political news programmes may not be sponsored;
- any funding of a news programme by a local authority must comply with the rules on sponsorship, which are applied all the more strictly when such funding also raises difficulties with regard to the principles of independence, honesty and plurality of information, in particular when airtime or speaking time is given to one or more political figures or their actions within the programme.
In order to preserve the separation established by the aforementioned texts between political and institutional promotion, and between information and communication, the French Superior Audiovisual Council recommends that the service editors concerned comply with the following rules:
- elements relating to the content and programming of the sponsored program, such as treatment, content of subjects covered and invitation policy, must not be the subject of agreements likely to undermine the responsibility and editorial independence of the television service with the local authority funding the program;
- when requested by the Council, the television service editor must be able to provide the contract employee between the local authority and itself or the company producing the sponsored program;
- the sponsor must be clearly identified at the beginning or end of the program, using the means of identification mentioned in paragraph III of article 18 of the decree of March 27, 1992, by the local authority itself and not by its deliberative assembly;
- during the program, only a one-off, discreet mention of the sponsor, using the above-mentioned means of identification, is possible, limited to a reminder of the sponsor's contribution;
- the presence and intervention of one or more officials from the local authority that sponsored the program is permitted, provided that it is occasional and measured, that the choice of the official(s) intervening or mentioned reflects a concern for objectivity, impartiality and plurality, and that the intervention is not political in nature.
This notice applies both when the television service editor produces the sponsored programs himself and when they are sponsored by a production company.
This notice will be published in the Journal officiel de la République française.