Quick Facts
Biography
Christine Albanel (born 25 June 1955) is a French politician and civil servant. From May 2007 to June 2009 she was France's Minister for Culture and Communication in François Fillon's government.
Albanel is agrégé in classical Letters. In 1982, she joined the administration of the city of Paris, and followed Jacques Chirac – working in his cabinet – when he became Prime Minister in 1986 and French President in 1995.
In 2000, she became Conseiller d'État.
She became president of the museum and domain administration of the Palace of Versailles in 2003.
In 2007, she was appointed Minister of Culture in François Fillon's government. While in this position, she proposed a new law (the HADOPI law) with the objective to reduce music and video piracy over the Internet, along the same 'graduated penalty' lines of thinking that previous ineffective 'DADVSI' law. This move generated huge debate as several Presumption of innocence key liberty and law principles were sacrificed for the sake of efficiency, while most experts in Internet technology said the attempt was anyway doomed as grossly underestimating the complexity of any reliable control system.
As of 10 June 2009, the HADOPI law was struck down by the Constitutional Council of France. She is currently Executive Vice-President of multi-national telecommunications corporation Orange.