France on Wednesday announced the birth of a new international television news network half owned by the state that aims to rival the BBC and CNN when it starts broadcasting next year.
President Jacques Chirac, addressing his cabinet, said that France "must be at the forefront of the global battle of images, that's why I am resolved that our country should have an international news channel," according to government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.
The French International News Network (CFII) - known colloquially as "CNN a la francaise" - will be run by a joint company owned by the leading private French television broadcaster TF1 and the public broadcaster France Televisions, Communications Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres told a media conference.
France Televisions will be in the driving chair of the entity, whose 240 staff will produce programmes beamed to Europe, Africa and the Middle East at first, then later also to Asia, Latin America and North America.
News will be provided around the clock in French, though the plans also call for a four-hour slot of English programming and the option of adding Arabic and Spanish. Cope said the CFII would begin broadcasting "before the end of 2006."
Chirac stated that "the goal is to show everywhere in the world the values of France and its vision of the world," according to Cope, and promised that it would have the public financing "commensurate with its ambition."
The European Commission gave the green light to the CFII in June, saying it did not breach EU state aid rules.
The new network is expected to rely on state-owned Radio France Internationale and on Agence France-Presse for some of its output, through contracts or associative arrangements.