The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed recommendations released by the French government in its Green Paper on press reforms in France. The Green Paper, published on January 8, contains 90 recommendations to reform the current functioning of the press in France.
An important proposal concerns existing authors' rights to remuneration for multiple-use of a journalistic work. The proposal provides for multiple use of journalists' works during the "normal lifetime" of a newspaper in its own title only. Afterwards, a collective agreement will determine the authors' rights to remuneration. Transfers within the media group and outside the media group will also be subject to a collective agreement.
"This proposal is a good compromise for French journalists from the written press, " said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "Digitisation of content and multiple-use of journalistic works required a response that was good for editors and good for journalists. In a country where protection of authors' rights has always been strong, it was crucial not to give in. We congratulate our unions for their excellent job."
The compromise on authors' rights was reached by journalists and editors in 2007. It was the result of intense lobbying from French unions SNJ, SNJ-CGT and USJ-CFDT.
"We are satisfied with this solution," said Olivier Da Lage of SNJ. "We also welcome moves for the inclusion of a code of ethics in the national agreement, the reinforcement of permanent training for journalists and a definition of online editors' status. However, we regret that no reference is made to editorial independence in the Green Paper. We will remain vigilant in the next steps of the press reform."
A new legislation amending journalists' authors' rights will be introduced in the upcoming months.
