France Médias Monde (FMM) is a French company in charge of managing the country’s public media organizations that are targeted to the international audience, namely the radio stations Radio France Internationale (RFI) and Monte Carlo Doualiya (MCD), and the television news media outlet France 24. France Médias Monde also owns a minority stake (of 12.5%) in TV5Monde.
With its newsroom based in Paris, France 24 airs in French, Arabic, English and Spanish. RFI produces content in French and 13 other languages whereas Monte Carlo Doualiya is an Arabic-language radio station.
Media assets
Radio: Radio France Internationale (RFI), Monte Carlo Doualiya (MCD)
Television: France24
State Media Matrix Typology: Independent State-Funded and State-Managed (ISFM)
Ownership and governance
FMM is fully owned by the French government through the State Participation Agency (APE). The Board of Directors is FMM’s highest governing body, consisting of 15 members, including the FMM President, five representatives of the state, two MPs, five representatives of the state-appointed media regulator (CSA) and two representatives of the FMM staff.
Source of funding and budget
FMM’s budget is almost entirely coming from a state grant. In 2022, the company received a state subsidy of €254.2m, according to official data from the lawmaking bodies. The station also generates some funding from advertising revenues. FMM used to be financed also through the revenues raised from the license fees.
In 2023, the French state allocated a subsidy of €263m to FMM, according to data from the state authorities.
Editorial independence
There is no evidence of (any) government control over the editorial output produced by the media outlets under the FMM umbrella.
FMM media outlets work in line with a set of editorial rules that establish their responsibility to ensure that they are editorially independent.
There is no specific mechanism we are aware of to independently validate the editorial independence of the media run by FMM.
September 2023