Culture today is undergoing profound transformations caused by the rise of digital technology. The methods of creation, production, and distribution of culture are adapting to this environment, and new players are emerging while people’s cultural habits and practices are changing.

The founding principles of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (UNESCO, 2005) are more relevant than ever in a digital space that offers opportunities and progress, but also poses risks and new challenges.

For many years, France has been committed to protecting and promoting the creation and production of, and access to, cultural goods and services in the digital environment, while also taking advantage of the opportunities it offers. Several examples of this commitment can be cited. Since 2003, the French National Centre of Cinematography and the Moving Image (CNC) has been supporting video games. In 2007, the High Authority for the Dissemination of Works and the Protection of Rights on the Internet (HADOPI) was created and entrusted with several tasks relating to the protection, on the Internet, of the interests of the copyright holders of works protected under intellectual property. In order to defend cultural exception, France has taken several initiatives. Since 2013, measures have been taken at the European level to reinforce cultural diversity obligations in the European Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). At the national level, the vote for the 2011 Law No. 2011 on the price of e-books created the conditions for fair competition for French industry players. Today, France wishes to remain proactive in the face of the rapid evolution of digital technologies and practices which continue to disrupt culture.

The Conference of the Parties to the 2005 UNESCO Convention addressed these issues in 2017 by adopting the Operational guidelines for the implementation of the Convention in the digital environment. Since then, all the States Parties to the Convention have been invited to prepare national road maps which describe the good practices they have undertaken, and which establish the focus of their future work and objectives. In 2020, France set up a working group composed of experts on digital issues who came from the public and private sectors, the spheres of research, and civil society. These qualified individuals have thus made it possible to develop an ambitious road map that indicates the existing courses of action that are to be continued or strengthened and which details the new main courses of work that are to be implemented.

The French national roadmap for the implementation of the 2005 Convention in the digital environment is based on three main themes:

- Supporting creation and protecting creators in the digital environment

- Promoting of the diversity of cultural offerings in the digital environment

- Developing audiences and access to culture in the digital environment

These three concepts are not separate from one another; rather, they form a coherent and interdependent whole. The main courses of work presented involve the issues of sustainability, inclusion, gender equality, and access to culture and knowledge, which must be taken into account in the digital environment, and which help to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions in the current context.

In a spirit of exchange and mutual inspiration, France, through this undertaking, is demonstrating its strong commitment to defend the principles of the 2005 Convention and to adapt its implementation as necessary to the challenges of digital technology.

2023 National Road Map for the Implementation of the 2005 Convention in the Digital Environment.pdf