A review of news from France for the week to Sunday 24 January 2021

This is News from France, a weekly review in English, today Sunday 24 January:

The focus for this week was:

the need for a negative Covid-19 test for travelers arriving in France

the rollout of the Coronavirus vaccination programme

better protection for children from sexual violence

and a deal between Google and French publishers for use of news.

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From midnight Sunday 24 January all travelers arriving by sea or by air in France need to show evidence of a negative Covid-19 test carried out within the previous 72 hours, according to government ministers.

The government also announced no decision would be taken on a possible third confinement of people to their homes until Wednesday. The number of new Coronavirus cases reported in the previous 24 hours was reported at nearly 24 thousand (23,924).

The vaccination programme is being rolled out across the country with more than a million people being vaccinated since it began (1,008,720).

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President Emmanuel Macron said France would tighten its laws on incest, to better protect children from sexual violence.

The move comes after the publication of a book accusing a French professor who oversaw one of France’s top universities of abusing his stepson. Hundreds of people took to social media to make known their own experience of incest.

Macron wrote on Twitter that he had asked the justice minister to chair a consultation aimed at quickly making legislative proposals. Controls on people working with children have already been increased but Macron said much more needed to be done.

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Search engine Google has reached a three-year agreement on the use of news snippets with over a hundred French publishers. The deal follows a pan-EU copyright reform agreed in 2019.

The French competition watchdog had ordered Google to negotiate with publishers over reuse of content.

The Press Alliance (L’Alliance de la Presse d’Information Générale) which represents about 300 titles in France said this week it had reached a framework agreement setting the terms of negotiation with its members for Google’s reuse of their content.

The payments will go direct to publishers and terms will not be disclosed.

Google introduced its “News Showcase” programme to start paying publishers around the world for use of news.

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This has been News from France, a weekly review in English, today Sunday 24 January 2021.