Following the new French communications law, voted last August 2000, independent community television is finally legal in France. Associative tv channels may now request licence to broadcast on analog hertzien and digital frequencies, satellite and cable networks, nationally and internationally ; they must file candidacy with the French regulatory authority, the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA).
It's a big step ahead for the freedom of expression, for the pluralism of information and consequently, for democracy. Members of the community and of a social economy based on solidarity will at last become the actors of their own expression on television, speaking for themselves, new forms of televisual creation at the service of fresh inspirations will be explored with no concessions to the imperatives of market economy and people will at last be allowed to see the abundant and high quality associative production hitherto condemned to very confidential airing.

But two conditions have yet to be fulfilled for this hope to become reality:

• that the government create a system of co-funding of associative television to ensure their economic viability,
  
  
• that the CSA make it one of their top priorities to grant associative television licence to broadcast, in order to ensure equitable visibility.

For these reasons, the signatees of this appeal, community-based televisions, producers, diffusers and actors of the audiovisual "third sector" (ie. social economy based on solidarity) request:

• that the government:
  urgently examine, as engaged before Parliament, creating a Support Fund for Free Community Expression in the audiovisual media, supplied for example by a levy tax on the turnover of companies that exploit hertzien ressources (inalienable public property) to commercial aims,
  
  
• that the CSA:
  rapidly ensure associative television the place it deserves in the French audiovisual landscape, by means of all the dispositions provided by the new law, namely this extract of its Article 29 reitierated in Article 30 concerning analog hertzien broadcasting:
  "The CSA will guarantee, over the whole territory, that a sufficient part of frequency ressources be attributed to services edited by non profit organizations and accomplishing missions of social and community-based communication ..."

Following the appeal, the first "States General" of the Audiovisual Third Sector will take place on May 26 and 27 in Tours, at the invitation of Sans Canal Fixe, free tv in Touraine, coorganizers with L'Œil Electrique and Zalea TV. Objectives : to defend and organize this new space for free community expression.

Please address signature to: contact@zalea.org
tel: (+33) (0)1 41 33 18 37 fax: (+33) (0)1 41 33 18 18
mail: Zaléa TV - B.P. 50 - 75921 Paris Cedex 19

Signatees: Zalea TV, IM'média, Télé Pangée (Montpellier), Sans Canal Fixe (Tours), Infinimage, Les Films du Crime et du Châtiment, Prochoix, La Cathode, Tribu (Roubaix), Petit Oeil (Montpellier), Les Brasseurs de Cages, Télé Cévennes, Primitivi (Marseille), Contamination Continue, Haro TV (Besançon), Télé Millevaches, Cinéma Nova (Bruxelles), PROTIS-Cométal (Marseille), Les Yeux de l'Ouïe (Nancy), Les Films du Passeur, Etna, L'Oeil Electrique (Rennes), Télé Kréol (La Réunion), Canal Marches (Les Marches des Chômeurs en Europe), Images Sans Chaîne, Vidéorème (Roubaix), Vidéosol (Durance), Aldudarrak Bideo (Pays Basque français), Indymedia, Télé Montmartre, Télé Saugeais, No Comment Movies, Couleur Cantal, Copsi Vidéo Production (Marseille), Le Carré Images (Poitiers), Collectif Jeune Cinéma, ma télé multimédi@ (Creuse), Vidéo Paris 13 (Université Paris XIII), OROLEIS de Paris, Europe Vidéo Broadcast, AEIOU, Scen TV (Savoie), Blue Meridian, Les Inattendus (Lyon), Polly Maggoo (Marseille), L'Abominable, Teletambores (Caracas-Vénézuéla), MTVL (Lorraine), TV Bruits (Toulouse), Clot RTV-Sant Marti (Barcelona-Catalogne), EMA-RTV (Andaluzia - Espagne), Northern Visions (Belfast - Northern Ireland), La 25e PROD (Marseille), le GSARA (Bruxelles), Télé K (Madrid), GIVR (Marseille), La Maison du Film Court, Génération Vidéo, Community Media Network (Dublin, Ireland), La Métisse, L'Ecran Cévénol (Lozère), Les Jeunes Cinéastes Ebroïciens (Evreux), Arrimage, i-Média TV, Kyrnea (Un Eté au Ciné), LA LANTERNE (Ciné-club, Universités Paris VI et Paris VII, Jussieu), 44 Pieds dans le PAF (Nantes), L'Œil Sauvage (Bayonne), Trégor-Vidéo (Trégastel), Images et Paroles Engagées (Marseille), Vaulx en VO (Lyon), La Caravane, EpokEpik Diffusion (Bordeaux), ALTERDoc, Art'Thémis/Séances Contre-Feux (Tours), Ignite (Toulouse),

Support the Appeal :
Agence KA Production (Marseille), ZKO (Paris), Franck Evrard (Kremlin-Bicetre), Olivier Daunizeau (TOURS), Thibaud Saintin Professeur de français, Ecole française de Manille, Philippines, Françoise Thiébault, Secrétaire Générale Adjointe du CNAFAL, Secrétaire Générale Adjointe de MTT, Radio Ici & Maintenant, Suzanne Korosi, réalisatrice, Jean–Louis Comolli, cinéaste, Laurent Hasse, réalisateur, Véronique Kleiner, réalisatrice, Jean-Jacques Delévaque, IUT-Université Paris V, Jean-Jacques Mitterrand, l'UFFEJ - Union Française du Film pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse, Frédéric Maurin, Saint-Martin d'Hères, Alain Jullien, citoyen, photographe, journaliste et réalisateur, Rennes, Pierre Gandonnière, chercheur-enseignant en communication Université Jean-Monnet, Saint-Etienne, Gaël Mortier, étudiant à Digne,

màj : 7 juin 2001