Speech by Roch-Olivier Maistre at the opening of the conference to present the report "Representation of women on television and radio".

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

Ladies and Gentlemen, Chairmen of audiovisual groups,

Madame Director, dear Agnès Chauveau, representing the Chairman of INA,

Ladies and gentlemen, representatives of partner associations and organizations committed to gender equality,

Dear all,

In the wake of a historic vote in Congress to enshrine in the Constitution the freedom of women to have recourse to voluntary interruption of pregnancy, I am delighted to welcome you this afternoon to Arcom to present the latest edition of our report on the representation of women on television and radio. I would like to thank you for your presence, which bears witness to the commitment of an entire industry to increasing the place, image and voice of women on the airwaves, an essential commitment given the importance of the audiovisual media in the daily lives and imaginations of French women and men.

As you know, since the beginning of my mandate at the head of this institution, I have made this subject a priority for the regulator: we have made progress, with the help of charters, such as the one to fight sexism in advertising concluded in 2018, of contractual commitments with editors, of dedicated events, in particular to promote the place of women's sport on air, but also of substantiated figures and findings: that's the purpose of this report.

As you also know, this year is the last opportunity for me, as Chairman of Arcom, to present the results of our annual study, carried out in collaboration with INA, for which I would like to extend my warmest thanks to Chairman Laurent Vallet, who is unable to be with us, and to the teams, in particular Agnès Chauveau and researcher David Doukhan, who will be speaking in a few moments.

Laurence Pécaut-Rivolier, member of Arcom and Chair of the "Public protection and the diversity of French society" working group, will be presenting the report's conclusions in a few moments. I'd like to thank her for her commitment and determination in tackling the many issues in her demanding portfolio, taking up the torch from the strong personalities who have championed these issues in the past within our college - which, incidentally, is equally divided. I would like to extend my thanks to all the Authority's departments, and in particular to the teams in the Audience, Pluralism and Social Cohesion Division, who worked closely with the service editors on the drafting of the report.

I would also like to thank the audiovisual media for their cooperation in providing us with the quantitative and qualitative data required to draw up this report: we know that deadlines are tight and the work demanding, and I am delighted that your chairmen and chairwomen are here with us this afternoon to demonstrate the commitment of your respective groups at the highest level. Believe me, I appreciate this, just as I appreciate the presence of national representatives - especially women... - who have always been supportive and proactive in this priority area.

The report published today has been prepared every year since 2016. To mark the 10th anniversary of the August 4, 2014 law on real equality between women and men, which conferred new powers on the regulator in terms of the fair representation of women and men on the airwaves and the fight against sexist stereotypes and violence against women, we wanted to carry out a review to highlight the developments seen between 2016 and 2023.

Significant progress has been made over this period, and we can collectively congratulate ourselves on it. The proportion of women on set has risen from 38% in 2016 to 43% in 2023, and the proportion of female experts on set from 31.3% to 43%. Beyond the figures, the face of television and radio has also changed in recent years: the majority of public audiovisuel companies are chaired by women, governance bodies have been feminized, and programs and advertising have developed, in the image of our society.

We know that we still have a long way to go to finally achieve parity, in management bodies, on sets and in the various guest categories. I'm delighted to see among us the heads of companies whose mobilization I know, because we cannot relax our collective vigilance. In any case, the regulator will not relax its vigilance, and commitments concerning the place and image of women on the air are of particular importance in the regulator's expectations when 15 national DTT frequencies are put out to tender. The sector we all represent has often been at the forefront of these issues, and must remain so.

We all know from observing the world around us that the place and rights of women face new threats every day, including on our old continent. In short, progress is far from linear, and the fights we thought had been won must be relentlessly pursued. At our level and in our place, we have our part to play.

It's not just a question of giving more space and speaking time to women, but also of changing mentalities, offering new role models, combating prejudice, and above all finally resembling our society by responding to the obvious: women make up more than half our population, and this reality needs to be reflected on screen and on air. Parity is not a goal, it's a duty. We all have to rise to the challenge, and I know we're closer than ever.

The coming year will be marked by major events such as the European elections and the Olympic and Paralympic gaming: they must enable us to reach a lasting milestone, so that there is a before and an after 2024.

Thank you for listening and for your commitment. I'll now hand over to Agnès Chauveau.