I wasn’t a terribly frequent visitor to France 24’s website, but as an English-language expression of the French view of the world, I thought it was a timely and useful alternative to the big media outlets of the “Anglosphere” like CNN and the BBC. Unfortunately, it appears that French President Nicolas Sarkozy does not feel the same way, since he announced on Tuesday that he would be cancelling the year-old channel. “With taxpayers’ money, I am not prepared to broadcast a channel that does not speak French,” he told the media.

What a pity.