A Transnational Study of Law and Justice on TV Edited by Peter Robson and Jennifer L Schulz OXFORD AND PORTLAND, OREGON 2016 Hart Publishing An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Hart Publishing Ltd Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Kemp House 50 Bedford Square Chawley Park London Cumnor Hill WC1B 3DP Oxford OX2 9PH UK UK www.hartpub.co.uk www.bloomsbury.com Published in North America (US and Canada) by Hart Publishing c/o International Specialized Book Services 920 NE 58th Avenue, Suite 300 Portland , OR 97213-3786 USA www.isbs.com HART PUBLISHING, the Hart/Stag logo, BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2016 © The Editors 2016 The Editors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identifi ed as Authors of this work. All rights reserved. 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The French television viewer has a choice of 24 ‘ free ’ television channels belonging to the TNT (t é l é vision num é rique terres- tre , or terrestrial digital television).1 Seven of these are public channels, the other 17 are privately owned, but free of charge, outside the licence fee. Everyone pays a licence fee of € 136, included on the yearly council tax form. French Television History, Financing and Organisation French television started to broadcast programmes in the late-1930s. A few years later, General Charles de Gaulle with the help of the Ministry of Information set up a state-regulated audiovisual service, RTF (Radiodiffusion T é l é vision Fran- ç aise). Created by law in 1949, RTF provided for the spending, investment and management of television and radio. It was also in charge of regulating television content and overseeing journalistic behaviour. The decision to develop a public television service clearly indicated the will to monitor the fl ow of information. Three additional objectives for French television were that programmes had to inform, educate and entertain the audience. Broadcasts like 5 Colonnes à la Une offered the fi rst TV reports and dealt with social issues at home, and foreign policy through the coverage of international confl icts (eg, the Algerian War). Television has never been high in the French cultural hierarchy and it was not a standard household feature until well into the 1960s. In 1960 only 13 % of families had a television set at home. By 1970 this fi gure had increased to 70 % even though 1 There are 25 TNT ( t é l é vision num é rique terrestre ) stations in France today. The TNT was intro- duced in 2005 and extended to the whole territory in 2011. The public stations belong to the France T é l é vision holding (France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5 and France ô which provides news from France ’ s overseas departments and territories, sometimes broadcasting news on francophone Africa as well). 80 Barbara Villez (with Valentin Rolando) the audiovisual offer remained limited. French television was a single channel ser- vice (T é l é vision Fran ç aise 1) broadcasting regularly for 40 hours a week until April 1964 when a second channel, Antenne 2, was created, initially broadcasting only a few hours a day. In December 1972, a third channel was launched, covering the whole country but with regional content. In 1964, a few months after the launch of the second channel (Antenne 2), RTF was transformed into ORTF (Offi ce de radiot é l é vision fran ç aise), which provided greater autonomy in relation to the government. In 1974 the ORTF was replaced by seven independent subsidiaries: the three television channels as independent organisms (T é l é vision Fran ç aise 1, Antenne 2, France 3 R é gions), T é l é diffusion de France (responsible for technical material), Soci é t é Fran ç aise de Production, Radio France, and INA (Institut national de l ’ audiovisuel, responsible for archives). An independent commission was created to redistribute the licence fee among these seven public companies. 2 French television remained a totally public institution until 1981. During his campaign for the presidency, Fran ç ois Mitterand, promised to give more freedom to the audiovisual sector. Canal + , the fi rst pay television station (with encrypted periods during the evening and parts of the day) was created in 1983 and started broadcasting in the following year. In 1984 the fi rst French language satellite channel TV5 was created. Today public television is fi nanced by the licence fee (60 % ) and advertising (40 % ). Advertising was introduced into the system in 1968. During Nicolas Sarkozy ’ s presidency, advertising was limited on the pub- lic (state owned) channels, permitted during the day, except between 8.00 pm and 6.00 am. However, certain companies can sponsor programmes during this time slot. Private companies and advertising fi nance private stations. Some pri- vate channels also rely on subscriptions (eg, Canal + , Orange S é ries, etc). In 1983 the Cosip ( Compte de soutien à l ‘ industrie des programmes ) was created to collect a tax on all channels making them contribute to cinematic and other audiovisual productions. Although programmes linked to subjects of law and justice can be seen on all channels, some smaller channels tend to specialise in these themes as part of their offerings. Here there is a more regular coverage of crime, especially police work. For example, Plan è te + carries documentaries on organised crime, ‘ magazines ’ dealing with famous cases and related subjects such as prison escapes or bank- ing fraud. Much of their scheduling, however, consists of reruns during the week. TMC (T é l é Monte-Carlo, fi nanced through capital from France and Monaco) is a non-specialised channel, yet most evenings (during prime time and afterwards), police shows are broadcast (the CSI , and Law & Order shows, 90 ’ Enqu ê tes , a ‘ mag- azine ’ on police activity). Polar,3 is a channel, which regularly broadcasts crime 2 ‘ Chronologie de la politique de l ’ audiovisuel ’ : www.vie-publique.fr/politiques-publiques/ politique-audiovisuel/chronologie/ . 3 ‘ Polar ’ is a French slang term for crime fi ction. France 81 series and fi lms. Many programmes dealing with law and justice are imported, but as we note below, strict quotas are imposed on all the channels as to imported content. The French Legal Context French justice is inquisitorial, not adversarial. Like most systems outwith the Anglo-American tradition, the judiciary is a separate profession within the civil service. More serious crimes are dealt with by superior courts consisting of a judges, two legal assessors and a jury of six citizens seated on either side of the three judges. Trials are judge led, rather than lawyer led, which means that the direction of speech is always to and from the presiding judge. One particular judge often encountered in TV programmes mentioned in this study is another feature of the continental system, the investigating magistrate ( le juge d ’ instruction ). He or she is a juge du siege responsible for investigations in criminal cases for more seri- ous crimes, and sometimes in less serious matters. Their investigatory role results in rather shorter and different trials from the Anglo-American system. History of Law Material on French Television The fi rst regular French programme on the theme of justice was En votre â me et conscience , fi rst aired on 28 February 1956 (RTF). It ran until 13 December 1969 (by then on the fi rst channel of ORTF). Based on famous cases, each broad- cast reconstructed parts of the trials and the public was invited at the end of the show to act as jurors and re-judge the accused. Each episode told a different story and there were no recurring characters; the judges and lawyers played by different actors in an exaggerated style.