France gets its first black TV presenter after Chirac pressure
By John Lichfield in Paris
Published: 08 March 2006
The Independent
UK

Under pressure from President Jacques Chirac, the main French television channel, TF1, has appointed a black journalist as "substitute" presenter of the country's most-watched news bulletin.

From July, Harry Roselmack, 32, will become the first non-white person to present a prime-time, mainstream television news programme on France's most-watched channel, TF1.

During the rioting by multiracial suburban gangs of young people in November last year, French television companies were criticised for their failure to present an ethnically diverse picture of French society.

Although journalists of Arab or African origin, such as Roselmack, have presented the news on minor channels or out of prime time, the main news bulletins have been an all-white preserve.

This was said to reinforce the sense of alienation felt by black and Arab youths in poor, French suburbs.

After the riots, President Chirac urged all the French media, and especially television companies, to make greater effort to hire journalists from ethnic minorities.

TF1 said it had hired Roselmack to respond to the President's appeal but also because "he is a very good journalist".

Roselmack's abilities are undisputed. Formerly a radio journalist, he has become a popular figure on the i-TELE cable news channel in the past six months. He has been praised for his clear and faultless presentation and his ability to exude seriousness and warmth.

He was described by one French newspaper as "having the looks of a play-boy, smiling and sexy".

Born on the French Caribbean island of Martinique, Roselmack was brought up in Tours, western France.

From the summer, he will present regular news bulletins on TFI's 24-hour news channel, LCI. More importantly, he will, from July, become the face of the 8pm TF1 news while its veteran presenter, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, is on holiday.

The TF1 evening news, with an audience of more than 5 million, claims to be the most watched news programme in Europe. In a country which has a low readership of national newspapers, the TF1 news is the main window on national and international events, especially in provincial France or "La France profonde".

Amirouche Laïdi, the president of Club Averroès, a pressure group for ethnic balance in the French media, welcomed the appointment.

"Harry Roselmack, a black man, on the TF1 evening news will be a bombshell, a huge advance," he said. "It's also a victory for normality. M. Roselmack has set the screen on fire on I-TELE since last year.

"Pretty soon, no one will see the black man on the television, only the journalist."

Azouz Begag, the Minister for Equality of Opportunity, said the appointment was a "great step forward" because television was the "mirror in which society looks at itself".

Harry Roselmack, a black man, on the TF1 evening news will be a bombshell, a huge advance.

Azouz Begag, the Minister for Equality of Opportunity, said the appointment was a "great step forward".

Wow, are the French really that fuckin' gullible?

Chiraq has, in one stroke of genious, eliminated the problem of racism in France. Who knew it would have been so easy?

"Sire, c'est une revolution!"

that's sad how France is racist against every non white,if you're not white you're not French.

White people are scum! lmao

Hey France!

Welcome to 1970.

--Sternboden

Fucking ridiculous, for two reasons:

*It took France this long to have a black journalist?

*It would be up to the PRESIDENT of France to change this?

I like this quote:

"It's also a victory for normality. M. Roselmack has set the screen on fire on I-TELE since last year."

What's up with French blacks setting things on fire?

that's sad how France is racist against every non white,if you're not white you're not French.

I wonder what would make them hate non whites, oh yea, that's why.

White people are scum! lmao

they're snob and racist,if you're French you perfectly know it...

>>"Sire, c'est une revolution!"

Pauvre Ostaire!!
Son monde s'écroule lentement.

More importantly, he will, from July, become the face of the 8pm TF1 news while its veteran presenter, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, is on holiday.

Don't worry it's just for the holidays.
The day TF1 will change Poivre d'Arvor by a black is not come.

Fuck TF1
Fuck France

wow this is so progressive, its like going back in the wayback machine to 1970.

Sami, who's that ugly androgynous bitch on your avatar? Is that male or female?

French Democracy:






The only way to be heard by King Chirac and his minions

How fucking racist is france, Canada and the Us have had non white anchors for like 25 years.

It's 2006, and FROGGY has yet to have a non-white TV anchor on any of its state-controlled TV stations?

LMAO, BALM clueless, as usual would I say

TF1 has been privatized since ... 1987. Oh, about a non-white tv anchor, same thing, BALM is ,again , clueless !

How fucking racist is france, Canada and the Us have had non white anchors for like 25 years

Fucking racists, we got non-white anchors since 1969, so 37 years ago: Sylvette Cabrisseau for exemple.

these frogs like to lie,the elite is JEW and WHITE,no black.

As this is the second time in one year that the "very first" French black TV presenter is announced, I will say the same thing as in last November when Audrey Pulvar got the 19/20 News Show on France 3, France's most popular News Show with up to 8 million viewers daily :

A black news anchor makes news in France


www.fuckfrance.com . . .

It's true that France has been late to transfer in the most visible showroom that national broadcast TV is, the multi-ethnicity which is already a reality in every day life.

I'm glad things seem to change.
I never said France was flawless on the issue, the important thing is to address the issue frontally, without denying the existence of problems.


I think there are interesting things in the US that we could take inspiration from, but the situation is very different.

Metropolitan France was a basically monoracial country less than 50 years ago, when your Blacks have been American since the US exists.

I still believe the Anglo-Saxon model aims to make people from differents communities side by side, when the French model aims to make them live together, which is a greater goal, and therefore more difficult to reach.

Whatever image in the US media, corporates, politics has been given by affirmative action, it doesn't reflect the truely segregated society that the US still is.

Yes, it took you 100 years to give some rights to your old Black-American population.
It didn't take us so much time with our recent immigrants.
Yes we've been late on working on symbols and visibility, but not on basic rights.


Call us back when you have a Black running for President, a Black President of the Senate, or a Black mayor elected by an all-white town like we had.




There's only one US Black Senator (recent and Democrat)
I think almost ALL Black Representatives are Democrat too.
There IS a good America! and it's Blue!


Your blacks have been around for ever and benefit from affirmative action (of which most of the bashers on this board are opposed to) ours are recent immigrants, and yet, NEVER, they had to use separate rest-rooms or bus-seats.

It took you 100 years from your "Declaration of White Human Rights" to abolition of slavery, then another 100 years to (almost) full abolition of official segregation, but you still live in different worlds like Katrina showed us.

How many more years will it just take YOU (personally) to aknowledge that the racial situation in the US is far from perfect TODAY, and to join the American forces like the Democrats, the ACLU, the NAACP and others to keep on the improvement?


The first Black Americans were also among the first Americans, we could call them "red-necks"!

However:


- The first Black elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote was EDWARD W. BROOKE, R-Mass., who was elected on November 8, 1966.
(190 years after Independence)

- The first Black woman in the U.S. Senate and the first Black Democrat was CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN, D-Ill., who was elected on November 3, 1992.
(216 years after Independence)

- The first Black governor elected by popular vote was L DOUGLAS WILDER, who was sworn in as governor of Virginia on January 13, 1990.
(214 years after Independence)

- The first Black mayors of major cities in the 20th century were CARL B. STOKES of Cleveland and RICHARD G. HATCHER of Gary, Ind., who were elected on November 7, 1967. Mayor Stokes was inaugurated on November 13 and became the first Black mayor of a major American city.
(191 years after Independence)

- The first Black mayor of a major Southern city was MAYNARD JACKSON, who was elected in Atlanta on October 16, 1973.
(191 years after Independence, when Atl is Black in majority)

- The first Black general in the regular army was BENJAMIN O. DAVIS SR., who was appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on October 16, 1940.
(164 years after Independence)

- The first Black woman in the cabinet of a U.S. president was PATRICIA R. HARRIS, who was named secretary of Housing and Urban Development by President Jimmy Carter on December 21, 1976.
(200 years after Independence)

- The first Black woman in Congress was Rep. SHIRLEY CHISHOLM, who was elected to the 91st Congress from Brooklyn on November 5, 1968.
(192 years after Independence)

(Source: Famous first facts)

Our immigration is VERY recent.
Don't blame us YET.
Our model has been working better than yours, so far.
We need more time, more work, more courage.
The only thing we don't need is people like you denying problems. And that's the same for the US

I love this kind of threads where the bashers can show thair contradictions and inconsistency:



- You want to bring democracy and liberty to the Iraqis, but hate all "muzzies" and want to nuke them.
- You say France is an Islamic republic, but blame it for the hijab ban for shoolgirls.
- You pretend you are in a war against terror, but never said anything against the Londonistan's situation.
- You praise the US's results for minorities visibility but are against affirmative action that led to it.
- You defend the blacks in this thread, but do you want me to find back some of your old posts about Katrina's "looters"?
- Finally you seem to forget that Blacks are democrats in their huge majority and that only 2% of them support Bush today. You are really the last people to pretend representing them.

Our immigration is very recent
(didnt africans live in paris 200 years ago)?
Dont blame us yet,
(not even for life in the Banlieues)?
Our model has been working better than yours, so far
(really in America an African American billionare own BET-TV stations, how many TV stations are owned in France by Africans)?
We need more time, more work, more courage- (no you need to stop making excuses).
The only thing we dont need is people like you denying problems and thats the same for the US

Really now how many CEO's in France are African? How is France's African middle-class growing?
How many Africans are realizing the French dream as opposed to the American dream.
In America homeownership by African Americans is at an all-time high.
How is for Africans in France? how many Africans attend university in France?

LMAO, BALM clueless, as usual would I say

TF1 has been privatized since ... 1987.

It's hard to tell when your president tells them who to hire.

Chitrack is depressed? He sees things in black?

It's hard to tell when your president tells them who to hire.

That's right.

Hey Moron, there have always been "coloured" people on French TV although in insufficient numbers. Black or arab journalists have been working for years in various channels. Rachid Ahrab from North Africa have been a prominent anchor for the Midday News on the 2nd channel...

In the 40s a number of Africans were MPs and ministers...One became President of the Senate and de facto nr 2 in the French State...Please remind us how long it took segregationist US to open its doors to black paople ??? How much of affirmative action was necessary to break the walls ? Do you consider now your black minorities to be fully integrated although they are not immigrants but real Americans ? Do you think US TV and news give sufficient space to your other minorities like the Latinos and Asians ?? Thanks for your objective answers .