Presentation to the press of the report "Women in the media" by Arcom President Roch-Olivier Maistre.

Good morning, and thank you for coming. We're delighted to welcome you this morning to Arcom, for this conference to present our 2022 edition of the report on "the representation of women on radio and television", published this year to mark International Women's Rights Day.

This is the seventh edition of this annual report, which takes stock of our collective mobilization in favor of equality in the audiovisual media, and I welcome the media representatives who are here today. As you know, this is a strong commitment on the part of the regulator, a personal commitment in my case - I said so as soon as I took office - and a commitment on the part of the entire college, because the issue of women's place in our audiovisual landscape is a key element in our audiovisual landscape and a structuring element in our democratic life. I am personally - and I know that the Arcom board and teams are just as committed - to this issue, which I consider of prime importance for our audiovisual landscape and our democratic life. I'm therefore delighted to see so many of you here today, which testifies to the importance you also attach to this issue.

In a few moments, Carole Bienaimé-Besse, member of Arcom and chair of the working group on "Education, audience protection and social cohesion in audiovisual and digital media", will present us with the report's conclusions. I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank her for her constant commitment - and that's putting it mildly! - in monitoring this priority issue for the Authority, and I'd like to add my thanks to all the Authority's departments, and in particular to the teams in Arcom's Audience, Pluralism and Social Cohesion Department, who have been hard at work drafting the report.

I'm delighted to welcome Laurent Vallet, President of the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, and his teams. This is the third year running that we have collaborated with the INA on this report, and I'm delighted that we have done so, as our conclusions are complementary. I hope, dear Laurent, that the cooperation between our two institutions, to which I am very attached, will continue and develop. I would also like to welcome, among our regular partners, the Haut Conseil à l'Egalité, the 50/50 collective and the association Pour les femmes dans les médias (PFDM).

Finally, I would like to thank the representatives of the audiovisual media who, as they do every year, have provided us with the quantitative and qualitative data required to produce this report. I know that you're asking us to do a lot of hard work, under tight deadlines.

For Arcom, as for the French Superior Audiovisual Council before it, the fair representation of women and men on the airwaves and the fight agains discrimination on the grounds of sex are essential missions.

As early as 2009,we set up figures relating to the representation of women on certain TV channels with the diversity barometer, but our action took a turning point with the law of August 4, 2014 on real equality between women and men. This text makes provision for new powers for the regulator and new obligations for channels. It has been supplemented by other actions, including the addition, as of 2016, of clauses relating to the representation of women in private television agreements and the conclusion, in March 2018, of a charter of commitments with industry professionals to fight agains sexual, sexist and gendered stereotypes in advertising. We drew up the third application report last year, which highlights the progress made in this area.

The regulator's action in favor of gender equality and the fight against discrimination has also been stepped up, with the development of training operations as part of media and information education (EMI). Our local branches are particularly involved in the deployment of EMI, which I see as a fundamental mission to enable rapid and lasting development in media representations.

We are also taking action on a European and international scale, with the support of our foreign counterparts: for example, as part of the Network of Mediterranean Regulatory Authorities (RIRM), Arcom has carried out an analysis of the way in which violence against women is portrayed on the news, and next year we are making provision for an analysis, again within this network, of the representation of women in sports magazines and broadcasts. We are also raising this issue at European level, by contributing to the "Gender Equality" working group of the European Regulators Network (ERGA).

As you know, our remit now extends beyond the audiovisuel field. Let me give you just one example: the law of July 30, 2020 aimed at fighting domestic violence requires us to abide by the ban on access by persons under 18 to online pornographic content, which contributes to conveying prejudices that degrade women to youngersters. We have served formal notice on five sites at the end of 2021 and are continuing our actions, since we have decided to take the matter before the courts.

This collective mobilization and vigilance is bearing fruit, as you will see in the report that will be presented to you. Last year, I recalled Alain Souchon's famous song "on avance, on avance, on avance". The trend is unstoppable, and shows that we'll be following the same course. The results are there, even if it's regrettable that they are sometimes very slow: so we must all continue our efforts and commitment together.