1. PLATFORMS (France24) — In June 2022, Google committed to resolving a dispute with French news publishers over compliance with neighboring rights. Finding that the company had not honored its own commitments, the Competition Authority fined it 250 million euros.
2. INDEPENDENCE (Liberation) — Unions, journalist collectives and media signed an open letter calling on Culture Minister Rachida Dati to defend editorial independence following the recent suspension of the editor-in-chief of La Provence. An incident that raised questions about respect for independence principles by its owner, billionaire Rodolphe Saadé, who is about to acquire BFM and RMC.
3. PRESS LAW (Ofalp) — Concerned about the state of press independence in France, a collective of journalists launched the French Observatory of Press Freedom Violations whose objective is to document situations in which a journalist's work has been unfairly hindered. The group plans to set up a monitoring unit in April and create a secure mailbox to collect testimonies.
4. DATA JOURNALISM (Nightingale) — Since the launch of Ikonos in 1999, the first commercial satellite to broadcast high-resolution images of Earth, satellite data has become a valuable resource for media and journalists, particularly in their practice of data journalism.
5. AI (Nieman Lab) — At Washington Post, Phoebe Connelly is responsible for overseeing the deployment of artificial intelligence within the newsroom while addressing concerns that this technology may raise. A newly created position that is gradually appearing in many newsrooms.
6. INNOVATION (404 Media) — To stop relying on social media and Google's algorithms, the online news outlet 404 Media, launched by former Vice employees, developed an RSS feed distribution system for its subscribers. On its website, the team explains that this method "can help small news publications like ours better connect with their subscribers."
7. TOOLS (Reflets.info) — The Reflets.info editorial team has developed a free investigation tool that makes it easier to visualize information on company structures (legal status, shareholders, revenue, etc). The tool, used by the editorial team in its own investigations, was recently updated to allow searching for companies in Switzerland, Belgium and the United Kingdom.
8. DIVERSITY (Media Matters for America) — The advocacy group recently criticized the New York Times for its editorial coverage of news topics concerning transgender people. It specifically faulted the newspaper for having "excluded the perspective of transgender people from two-thirds of its articles on anti-transgender legislation over the year".
9. JOURNALISTS (Politis) — Sainte-Soline, protest against labour law, Yellow Vests … Journalists who covered these mobilisations witnessed, and some were victims of, violence and traumatic scenes. Some carry significant aftereffects and lament the lack of support.
10. LOCAL MEDIA (Chantier Sonore) — A participatory map for recording and sharing the sounds of wildlife, flora and testimonies from residents of a territory,that's the project that Chantier Sonore carries, a media education and radio practice association based in the Arcachon basin. The initiative will allow anyone to propose audio clips to integrate into the "sound map" which is scheduled to launch in the coming months.
