Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Much of the world is watching and blogging the war in Iraq in English and, to a lesser extent, Arabic. Not good news, that, for France, which is rarely in the picture outside the Francophone countries, unless it's taking a bashing from the Anglosphere, of course. Time, then, to get oneself a 24-hour satellite TV network. And that's what Jacques Chirac intends to do.

If you wish to submit a proposal to the French government to run the network, 22 April is the deadline. Don't stay up all night perfecting those Excel profit forecasts, though; they're not expected. The global audience is limited, so advertisers won't be falling over themselves to redirect their budgets. This is about politics and the war of ideologies, so lots of state subsidies can be expected and, given their experience with domestic politics and subsidies, state-owned and private French media groups, nicely fattened already by the taxpayer, are lining up at the trough. Radio France International is expected to partner with state-owned France Télévisions in tendering for the contract. The talk is of an annual budget of €35 million for the network. La Chaine Info, the all news channel, is bidding for the job as well but it says that a €100 million a year will be needed for operations.

THIS IDEA for a 24-hour satellite TV network has been doing the rounds in France for some years now and officials may yet regret not getting on the airwaves sooner. Ten years ago, the benchmark and the rival, was CNN. Today, the Atlanta-based broadcaster is bigger than ever reaching 80 million American households and 160 million internationally. Meanwhile, BBC World has come along and is making inroads all over the globe. Although far behind CNN in terms of viewers, it is earning plaudits for its journalism. The audience will come, says a confident BBC management. Then there's al-Jazeera. Started in 1996, it now counts around 35 million viewers, with 8 million of those in Europe. To complicate matters further, there are reports that CNN is holding discussions with Canal Plus, the French pay TV operator, about launching its own French-language version. And, the icing on the cake: The US government is in the process of setting up an Arab language news service that will have an operating budget of $62 million and start broadcasting at the end of next year. So, lots of competition for Chirac's network, which will be targeting opinion leaders in the Middle East, as well as those in Africa and Europe and Canada.

Do these people want to get their news exclusively in French, though? Naturally, non. That's why bidders for the network contract are being asked to estimate the cost of broadcasting in English, Spanish and Arabic as well.

IN THE MEANTIME, there's the internet, which reaches a vast global audience, but a casual inspection of news sites suggests that the voice of France is not being heard online. That's because English is the language people use on the web to reach people they want to influence. But what do the leading French publications do? That's right. They don't do English. Le Monde is in French only, as is Liberation as is Le Figaro. If this is how the French think they can win hearts and minds in the war of ideas, they're making a big mistake. So, given the poor job that France is doing in promoting its culture and ideas on the internet, one cannot expect much of its 24-hour satellite TV network, apart from huge financial losses, that is.

Diarist of the day: Gerard Manley Hopkins, 4 April 1870 "In taking off my jersey of knitted wool in the dark with an accidental stroke of my finger down the stuff I drew a flash of electric light. This explains the crackling I have often heard."