Abstract:

Newspapers and other periodicals are still an important part of the communications Industry today, and they make an immense contribution to the work of informing the masses, and thereby to the forming of opinions from adolescence on. It is therefore of primary importance that a freedom of "expression" should be made secure, as is indeed the case, I think, in the majority of industrialized countries . But once information is freely expressed in printed form, it must be placed just as freely at the disposal of the reader. Any citizen must be able to choose his or her reading matter in complete freedom. This implies some organization for the distribution and sale of periodicals, in the interest of maintaining that freedom. My subject today, - and my pleasure, - is to let you know of the French solution to this last problem. This solution originated right after the Second World War ... in 1947 to be exact! And for over 30 years, this solution has been providing satisfactory results both to publishers and to the public. We can say therefore that the system for distributing periodical publications in France is workable ... and, furthermore, it is economical!