Party chairman Jordan Bardella claimed that his ambition was to privatize state radio and television "to save money", the Guardian reported.
He said the sale of the public broadcaster would save more than 3 billion euros, which could be used to fund other policies. The measure will take time and "won't happen in 24 hours".
Sébastien Chénu, the party's deputy chairman, said public television and radio in France needed "a little freedom, a little oxygen". Some major broadcasts on national radio stations "lean to the left or far left" and there should be no "taboo" on privatization, he added.
The party intends to sell national TV and radio stations but keep international channels that are the voice of France abroad, such as France 24 and Arte, as well as channels in overseas territories such as Martinique and Guadeloupe.
On June 9, Macron called a general election after the far right largely defeated his centrists in European elections. The result is uncertain, and Le Pen's party is polling strongly.
The public broadcaster France Télévisions, which includes four national TV channels and 24 regional channels, is a major financier of films, theatre and documentaries and is the leading French media outlet. Radio France has several national and local stations and dominates podcasting. Its public radio station France Inter is the most popular in France with more than 7 million listeners daily.
Clément Ottin, candidate of the leftist New Popular Front alliance, said voters should choose the left in the election to "avoid carnage" in public broadcasting.
The dispute over privatization comes at a delicate time for French state TV and radio, which have been weakened by the abolition of the license fee and face uncertainty over their future funding model.
In 2022, the Commission will have to decide whether it will be able to continue to operate the network. Macron abolished the €138-a-year TV license fee in mainland France. Since then, the public broadcaster has been funded by a portion of VAT, but this short-term solution will end next year.
When Macron abruptly dissolved parliament after the European elections, the legislation that remained pending included plans to resolve the issue of how public media could be independently funded.
In addition, public broadcasters went on strike last month after Macron's culture minister, Rashida Dati, proposed a merger of public media companies. Journalists' unions have accused Macron of trying to reinstate the ORTF, the structure that united French public broadcasters until the 1970s and whose lack of independence has been criticized.
"For the SC, public broadcasting is a goal. The privatization they are thinking of is a way of trying to silence the media, which they accuse of being woke, left-wing and opposed to their ideology. It's a way to silence the media they consider too brash," said Alexis Levrier, a media historian at the University of Reims.
He said that if the National Assembly gained control of parliament and did decide on privatization, it would choose to sell it to "media bosses close to their ideas".
But he said it was also possible that, once in power, the SC would instead decide to keep the weakened public service and control it. "If public service broadcasting remains public but in the hands of the SC, then Macron will make it easier for the far right to weaken public broadcasters by abolishing the license fee and with his merger plans, destabilizing the mediaPublic broadcasting in France is in a paradoxical situation where it has never had such large audiences and high satisfaction ratings from viewers and listeners, but it has never been so unstable," he added.
The French media landscape has been the subject of soul-searching over the far-right culture wars since conservative Catholic billionaire Vincent Bollor consolidated his media empire with the acquisition of Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, radio station Europe 1 and TV channel CNews.
CNews, which is dominated by heated talk shows on immigration and crime, recently became the most-watched news channel on French television. Former education minister Papp Ndiaye once described it as "very close to the most radical extreme right".
Pascal Praud, a CNews star and columnist for Le Journal de Dimanche, says the left-wing media is jealous of the media group's success.
Le Monde reported that while many in the government were kept in the dark about Macron's intention to dissolve parliament and call elections, Praud was summoned by the Elysee Palace and briefed before Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. | BGNES
