Franceinfo’s auditors are wondering how to handle pension reform

Florent Guyotat, deputy editorial director of franceinfo, answers listeners’ questions about the treatment of the pension reform, from the presentation of the text, at the beginning of January, to the launch of 49.3, this Thursday. Florent Guyotat on the microphone of Emmanuelle Davitt, Radio France Aerials moderator.

Emmanuelle Davit: Pension reform has been in the news for several weeks now. And on an ongoing news channel, how do you renew the angles to deal with this issue without exhausting the listeners?

Florent Guyotat : So indeed, for us, there is something essential, a duty to explain. Since its introduction at the beginning of January, the script has evolved exponentially up to the outbreak of 49.3. And we have tried, at every stage, to explain the changes in this text about legal age, period of subscription, long careers, and hardship.

This is really our first goal. Introduce and explain this text so that everyone can form an opinion. Then, we also talk a lot about some of the professions that are highly mobilized, like railway workers, like some electricians and gas workers, like garbage collectors too, at the moment in Paris.

But we’re also trying to give a voice to other employees, second-line employees, as they say. And then the employees who work in the services, with people too, who are sometimes in favor of reform. We strive to give everyone a voice and for all types of professions.

Therefore, we give the floor to those who support this reform. Specifically, listeners think we hear more dissenters.

How is this discourse divided between different viewpoints? First of all, do you find the remark of your listeners, who say that the floor is mainly given to adversaries, justified?

It is an impression one can have, but if it is the wrong impression. First, we are under the control of ARCOM, which replaced the CSA and which is thus the regulatory and supervisory authority for audiovisual media.

We have the necessities of pluralism and we are in control of it. If we give too many votes to such and such a person or to such and such a camp, we will be pointed out and we must rectify the situation. You should know that we give the floor to everyone.

When, for example, at 8:30 in the morning, including the morning political meeting, you hear opponents of reform. Every time we try to give the floor early in the morning to someone who, on the contrary, would agree to this reform.

This also applies the other way around, when we have a minister or representative of the presidential majority at 8:30. Earlier in the morning, we’re trying to give the floor to whoever is challenging this fix.

Emmanuel Davitt : In some of the letters, listeners regret the Parisian treatment of this news.

So I read you one of them. “Again, the public service only speaks of Parisian garbage collectors. Are you interested in the number of striking garbage collectors across the territory? we I don’t even know how many cities were affected.”

Then another message we read : Regarding the protests against pension reform, one speaker said that the movement is less successful than in 2010, because there are fewer demonstrators in Paris. Paris is not France. The march is easier than going to Paris for reasons of time and money. This listener writes to us, So thank you to the journalists for not forgetting interruptions, and for knowing how extensions work. He said at the end of his letter.

How do you respond to these statements Florent Guyotat?

Florent Guyotat : Again, my answer is that our treatment is not exclusively Parisian, in fact, far from it. We have endeavored throughout the protest, throughout the show and the developments associated with this reform, to go to different medium-sized cities in France where we have been in recent weeks, to name a few of these, in Troyes, Morlaix, this Friday, we had four correspondents in four cities in France Also in Rennes, Saint-Etienne, Montargis and Marseille.

So we see that we’re making efforts, really not just treating this news in a Parisian way. After that, there are obviously photos that hit the public eye. The gathering is on Thursday evening, March 16, at the Concorde in Paris. We are obligated to deal with it because it is before the National Assembly and has a strong symbolic significance. But each time, again, we strive to go to different cities in France, giving voice to all kinds of professions, to all kinds of social bodies.

We’re also paying attention to what’s happening in companies, with people who aren’t necessarily unionists, with business leaders too, who may have concerns about the way reform is progressing, or concerns about what it could do to their economic activity. And all of this, we strive to report in a pluralistic manner.