The Audio-visual Bill proposed by the French minister of culture, Catherine Trautmann, may presage further change.

ECONOMIST: French cinema

Miss Tasca, who was Mr Rocard's communications minister, takes over from Mrs Trautmann.

ECONOMIST: France shuffles its pack

As Catherine Trautmann explained last year, when she was culture minister, it was in France's interest to ratify the Council of Europe's charter that protects regional and minority languages.

ECONOMIST: How multilingual is France?