Jade Azzoug Montane, "AFP: A unique undertaking, from its origins to the birth of its exceptional statutes, 1832-2015" A critical note

I was deeply saddened to learn of the death on Monday, June 1, 2020, of Jean-Michel Cadiot at the age of 67.

Site information, credits

"AFP should serve the public interest (and nothing else)"

"Is hereby created, under the name of Agence France-Presse, an autonomous civil entity functioning under commercial rules...". The full text of AFP’s 1957 statutes, translated into English.

Final reading for a new law which makes deep changes, some of them demanded by the European Commission

Four AFP Unions call a strike, and appeal to French MPs, over new plans to reform the agency’s statutes.

Following on from a report commissioned by President François Hollande on ways to change AFP’s financial arrangements, a new draft law seeks to make substantial changes to the 1957 statutes

The ADIAFP was set up in May 2009 by a small group of AFP employees seeking to alert public opinion, both in France and around the world, to efforts by the French government to change its founding statutes.
NB: At an extraordinary general assembly held on October 30, 2014, the members of (…)

Election to the AFP Board: Journalists, Vote for Samir Douaihy !

This text, signed in December 2008 by the then CEO, Pierre Louette for four years, sheds a lot of light on the relationship between AFP’s technocratic managers and the state.

"This agreement is not only incomprehensible, it is also totally unethical and as such violates the founding statutes of AFP."

Not all the threats to AFP’s founding statutes come from outside the agency

Thanks to steadfast opposition by AFP staff, plus the almost 24,800 signatures gleaned by the petition, the fight to save AFP’s statutes from the attacks launched in 2007-8 has been in large part won.

Launched on November 27, 2008, the SOS-AFP petition gleaned 21,834 signatures. It came to an end in April 2012

New wording recognises EU-inspired "service of general economic interest"

Translated summary of joint union statements

Leading figures from all over the world were among the signatories of the 2008-2012 petition

According to the weekly "Canard Enchaîné", CEO Emmanuel Hoog has asked a PR agency with close links to the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy to help him promote plans to change AFP’s statutes. Staff are not amused.

The European Commission steps into the battle over AFP’s future, citing EU competition rules