France · Bias: State-funded
France Médias Monde (French state)
France 24 was dreamed up by Jacques Chirac, who was tired of watching world events narrated exclusively in English by CNN and the BBC. Launched in 2006 and run by state-owned France Médias Monde, it broadcasts in French, English, Arabic and Spanish — soft power with a newsroom attached, and unusually strong Africa coverage, a legacy of the French colonial footprint. Being France's voice abroad cuts both ways: solid resources and access, but every awkward France-in-Africa story comes with an asterisk the size of the Élysée.
In 2022 and 2023, the military juntas of Mali and Burkina Faso banned France 24 (and sister radio RFI) outright — Mali after reporting on alleged army massacres, Burkina Faso after the channel aired an interview with an al-Qaeda regional leader. The bans made France 24 a genuine press-freedom martyr and an imperial irritant at the same time: kicked out precisely because it was doing journalism, yet resented locally as the ex-colonizer's megaphone. Nobody said soft power was simple.