Inside AFP

AFP has become the first media company in France to sign a company agreement on the reversion to its journalists of part of the neighbouring rights paid by platforms under the 2019 European directive.

For France, the three-year agreement signed between the CGT, FO and SNJ unions and the management, provides for the payment of a minimum gross amount of €275 annually per journalist working full time all year round.

In addition to this agreement, which concerns journalists working under French law, AFP has set up a system which will benefit all of the agency's permanent journalists.

AFP has undertaken to apply a compensatory payment to its journalists based in a European Union country if the legal provisions governing neighbouring rights are less favourable than in France, as well as to its journalists based in non-EU countries that do not recognise neighbouring rights.

As a result, each full-time AFP journalist will receive a minimum gross payment of €275 per year, including employer's contributions, for three years from 2022, regardless of where they work.

The measure will benefit around 1600 full-time AFP journalists, and will represent an annual sum of more than €430,000 euros, based on the first level of neighbouring rights received by AFP. A mechanism for increasing the lump-sum payment is planned, based on the neighbouring rights received by AFP.

"We started from scratch because there was no precedent and the French law transposing the European directive spoke of an 'appropriate and fair' reversion, which left a lot of room for negotiation," said AFP President and CEO Fabrice Fries, adding that "the fixed amount we agreed on is a floor that is intended to increase over time”.