When a political journalist covers the National Assembly or does live reports on a 24-hour news channel, the announcement of a pregnancy concretely changes her professional daily life. The case of Anne Saurat-Dubois, a prominent figure in political journalism on BFMTV, illustrates the very real adjustments that motherhood imposes in a world where the work pace never slows down.
Maternity leave in a 24-hour news newsroom: what really changes in daily life
On a channel like BFMTV, political journalists work on staggered schedules, with evening live reports, unexpected special editions, and a constant responsiveness to parliamentary news. A pregnancy hits this organization hard.
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Since March 2022, the national collective agreement for broadcasting imposes schedule adjustments for pregnant employees, the prohibition of certain night assignments, and systematic interviews before and after maternity leave. These provisions directly affect the positions of journalists on set or in reporting.
At Altice (the group that owns BFMTV and RMC), a professional equality agreement signed in March 2022 formalized maternity leave, second parent leave, and job adjustments, with a quantified follow-up on the returns from maternity leave in on-air roles. This refers to a framework that did not formally exist a few years earlier, which puts into perspective the journey of Anne Saurat Dubois pregnant and a mother in light of the constraints of her newsroom.
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Pregnancy and visibility on air: the trap of programmed erasure
The most concrete problem for a pregnant journalist on television is not the gaze of colleagues. It is the gradual disappearance from the airwaves.
The 2023 report from ARCOM on the representation of women on television points out that female journalists remain underrepresented in high-profile political slots. 24-hour news channels are among the few segments where the share of female presenters is increasing, but several months of maternity leave creates a visibility gap that is hard to fill.
For a political journalist like Anne Saurat-Dubois, whose reputation has been built on live interviews (we remember her heated exchanges with political figures), a prolonged absence poses a real professional risk. The time slot may be redistributed, viewer habits change, and a spot on air is never guaranteed upon return.
What the collective agreement provides for upon return
The broadcasting agreement mandates a return interview after maternity leave. The stated goal: to ensure that the employee returns to an equivalent position. In practice, returns vary on this point depending on the newsrooms and the size of the political team.
The Altice agreement of 2022 goes further by incorporating a quantified follow-up on returns to on-air roles, which serves as an internal pressure lever to avoid silent sidelining.
Motherhood and political journalism careers in France: the invisible trade-offs
Beyond the legal framework, motherhood imposes choices on female journalists that their male colleagues generally do not have to make. Three trade-offs consistently arise in the journeys of political journalists who become mothers:
- The timing choice: announcing a pregnancy during an electoral sequence or during a political crisis can mean missing the coverage of a structuring event for the career
- The management of physical visibility: on television, the body is exposed, and pregnancy becomes a subject of public commentary even before the journalist chooses to discuss it
- The negotiation of the return: obtaining a comparable time slot, a political column of the same magnitude, or simply reconnecting with sources after several months of absence
Anne Saurat-Dubois has built her career on political journalism, a sector where physical presence and relational continuity with sources are extremely important. Every month of absence weakens a network of contacts that takes years to establish.
Newsroom rhythms and parenthood: what company agreements do not resolve
Collective agreements set a framework. They do not address the issue of rhythm.
A 24-hour news newsroom operates on 24-hour cycles, with peak audiences in the morning and evening. For a mother who is breastfeeding or managing the logistics of an infant, the time slots of 6-9 AM or 6-9 PM become a headache. The problem is not the employer’s unwillingness; it is the very structure of the job.
Female journalists returning from maternity leave in audiovisual media often face a binary choice: accept the demanding hours to keep their place on air, or request an adjustment that distances them from the most exposed time slots.
The issue of second parent leave
The Altice agreement of 2022 also includes second parent leave, which changes the game for couples where both partners work in the newsroom. If one partner also takes leave, the logistical burden is better shared upon return. This provision is still recent, and its concrete effects on newsroom organization are just beginning to be measured.
The journey of Anne Saurat-Dubois in political journalism illustrates a reality that regulatory texts alone cannot transform. The place of women in political newsrooms is progressing, but motherhood remains a moment when the career is determined as much by internal negotiation as by what happens on set.
Recent company agreements offer formal guarantees, and that is an advancement. The real test is what happens concretely on the day the journalist crosses the threshold of the newsroom with a young child.