EU examines French news agency funding

EU competition regulators are examining whether France is providing unfair state aid to French news agency Agence France-Presse.

The European Commission said that subscriptions from the French government make up 40% of AFP’s revenue.

The commission said: “The annual subscriptions of the government could constitute state aid.”

It added that it “at this point views that possible aid to AFP would have the potential to distort competition and affect exchanges between member states.”

It has asked for more information from the French government following a complaint by the German news agency dapd.