• Reuters, Friday, November 3, 2006 12:39 PM

The vision of a new rival to CNN is near realization, and is vowing to take a pluralist and French world view to offset the "unified, Anglo-Saxon" outlook of the U.S. news channel. French President Jacques Chirac promised a "CNN a la francaise" in 2002, and the idea gained steam during the fuss over his opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The success of Arabic news stations such as Al Jazeera has also encouraged others to enter a field once dominated by CNN. Now, in a building south of Paris, France 24--in which state-owned broadcaster France Television and commercial television company TF1 have equal stakes--is readying an early December launch. "Diversity, debate, culture, the art of living are going to be the hallmarks of France 24 and that's going to provide a different point of view from the Anglo-Saxon world," says Alain de Pouzilhac, the station's chief executive. "We're going to emphasize all the differences of the world, in contrast to the Anglo-Saxons who only show a unified vision of the world."

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