Mediating religious matters on PSB Television.
Résumé
French debates around the prohibition of religious signs in schools raised a controversy aimed at the Republican doctrine of "laïcité". Outside France, many countries, like the USA, pointed out what they consider as intolerance towards denominations. In Voltaire country, the vote of the 2004 act reactivated historical clashes between the defenders of a clear-cut separation of the Church and the State who think that expressing one's faith should be a private matter and those who wish to bring changes in order to take into account religious idiosyncrasies in the public sphere. Such debates also occur in other European countries : the Mohammed caricatures in Denmark or the attempts to integrate a reference to Christianity in the European Constitution were thoroughly-commented controversial issues. Of course, audiovisual media echo and crystallize these debates. The article focuses on PSB televisions as they are supposed to embody values of plurality, tolerance and freedom of expression in modern democracies.