The Retard
11-19-2005, 05:33 PM
France Is Trying, Discreetly, to Integrate Television a Bit (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/16/international/europe/16france.html)
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/7668/francenewscaster5sc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By CRAIG S. SMITH
Published: November 16, 2005
PARIS, Nov. 15 - Audrey Pulvar's posture straightens incrementally as a television producer counts down from five in a broadcast studio here, and at 7:30 p.m. sharp, her image flashes onto screens across the country.
"Bonsoir," she begins before delivering the day's news on France 3, a state-run channel.
But there is something new about the news in France, thanks to Ms. Pulvar. She is black, one of the first minority anchors to appear regularly here on prime-time television and part of a gradual effort to mold the country's communications media into a more representative shape.
"On TV the faces are all white and Gallic, but in the street France is more multicolored," said Édouard Pellet, a journalist of Algerian descent, who is charged with diversifying on-camera personalities for the state-run television networks. "We have fallen behind the reality of the country."
France, with a larger proportion of non-European minorities than any of its neighbors, has been locked for decades in what Americans might consider a 1960's-style denial of the increasingly multiethnic makeup of its society.
The disparity between the country's monochromatic image of itself and the multicolored reality frustrates young citizens from non-European immigrant backgrounds and has added to their sense of alienation, which was expressed most graphically in the arson attacks that have swept the country this month.
President Jacques Chirac, speaking of the unrest, acknowledged the failing when he told the nation on Monday night that he would meet with the heads of the French media to see how they could "better reflect the French reality of today."
Ms. Pulvar, 34, came to Paris in 2000 to look for work after appearing for six years on television in her native Martinique and was told point-blank that "the French public is not ready" for a nonwhite face to present the news. Even more junior on-camera jobs were off limits; "I already have a black and I don't need another one," one television executive told her.
"There are many minorities on the production side, but in front of the camera was reserved for Caucasians," Ms. Pulvar said, sitting in a cafe before her broadcast.
France is slowly changing. In 2000 an actors' campaign called Collective Equality pushed for diversity and got some attention, though it fizzled with little effect.
Ms. Pulvar said she noticed a shift in 2002 when the state television group, France Télévisions, finally gave her a chance at an on-camera job. The next year, large photographs of 13 women, 8 of them of Arab or African origin, were hung on the facade of the National Assembly to represent Marianne, France's idealized embodiment of freedom.
But efforts to promote the visibility of minorities have lagged, in part because of the French ideal, enshrined in the Constitution, that all citizens are equal regardless of race or religion. The clause has long been interpreted as prohibiting affirmative action for ethnic minorities, even if such initiatives have been undertaken in less sensitive areas.
"We've adopted a law to help women, a law to help the disabled," Mr. Pellet said. "The only sector of society that we haven't dared touch is the ethnic-racial realm, which affects society most deeply."
The gap between the France seen on television and that seen in the streets began to bother even television executives, who could see the rest of the world passing them by. The television network moved Ms. Pulvar to Marseille, where she anchored the news in one of the most right-wing regions of the country. Despite the management's fears, the channel neither lost viewers nor drew letters of protest.
The state-run television group has since embarked on a discreet affirmative action program, called the positive action integration plan, tailored to avoid transgressing the country's rules against hiring on the basis of religious or ethnic origin.
Because affirmative action on the basis of race or religion is effectively banned, the company keeps no records that could be used to accuse it of hiring people because of their origins. "We've never written it down anywhere that we hire on the basis of color," Mr. Pellet said.
Page 2 (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/16/international/europe/16france.html?pagewanted=2)
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/7668/francenewscaster5sc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By CRAIG S. SMITH
Published: November 16, 2005
PARIS, Nov. 15 - Audrey Pulvar's posture straightens incrementally as a television producer counts down from five in a broadcast studio here, and at 7:30 p.m. sharp, her image flashes onto screens across the country.
"Bonsoir," she begins before delivering the day's news on France 3, a state-run channel.
But there is something new about the news in France, thanks to Ms. Pulvar. She is black, one of the first minority anchors to appear regularly here on prime-time television and part of a gradual effort to mold the country's communications media into a more representative shape.
"On TV the faces are all white and Gallic, but in the street France is more multicolored," said Édouard Pellet, a journalist of Algerian descent, who is charged with diversifying on-camera personalities for the state-run television networks. "We have fallen behind the reality of the country."
France, with a larger proportion of non-European minorities than any of its neighbors, has been locked for decades in what Americans might consider a 1960's-style denial of the increasingly multiethnic makeup of its society.
The disparity between the country's monochromatic image of itself and the multicolored reality frustrates young citizens from non-European immigrant backgrounds and has added to their sense of alienation, which was expressed most graphically in the arson attacks that have swept the country this month.
President Jacques Chirac, speaking of the unrest, acknowledged the failing when he told the nation on Monday night that he would meet with the heads of the French media to see how they could "better reflect the French reality of today."
Ms. Pulvar, 34, came to Paris in 2000 to look for work after appearing for six years on television in her native Martinique and was told point-blank that "the French public is not ready" for a nonwhite face to present the news. Even more junior on-camera jobs were off limits; "I already have a black and I don't need another one," one television executive told her.
"There are many minorities on the production side, but in front of the camera was reserved for Caucasians," Ms. Pulvar said, sitting in a cafe before her broadcast.
France is slowly changing. In 2000 an actors' campaign called Collective Equality pushed for diversity and got some attention, though it fizzled with little effect.
Ms. Pulvar said she noticed a shift in 2002 when the state television group, France Télévisions, finally gave her a chance at an on-camera job. The next year, large photographs of 13 women, 8 of them of Arab or African origin, were hung on the facade of the National Assembly to represent Marianne, France's idealized embodiment of freedom.
But efforts to promote the visibility of minorities have lagged, in part because of the French ideal, enshrined in the Constitution, that all citizens are equal regardless of race or religion. The clause has long been interpreted as prohibiting affirmative action for ethnic minorities, even if such initiatives have been undertaken in less sensitive areas.
"We've adopted a law to help women, a law to help the disabled," Mr. Pellet said. "The only sector of society that we haven't dared touch is the ethnic-racial realm, which affects society most deeply."
The gap between the France seen on television and that seen in the streets began to bother even television executives, who could see the rest of the world passing them by. The television network moved Ms. Pulvar to Marseille, where she anchored the news in one of the most right-wing regions of the country. Despite the management's fears, the channel neither lost viewers nor drew letters of protest.
The state-run television group has since embarked on a discreet affirmative action program, called the positive action integration plan, tailored to avoid transgressing the country's rules against hiring on the basis of religious or ethnic origin.
Because affirmative action on the basis of race or religion is effectively banned, the company keeps no records that could be used to accuse it of hiring people because of their origins. "We've never written it down anywhere that we hire on the basis of color," Mr. Pellet said.
Page 2 (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/16/international/europe/16france.html?pagewanted=2)