Dominique Baudis (; 14 April 1947 – 10 April 2014) was the French Defender of Rights (ombudsman). Formerly a journalist, politician and

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

, he had been a member of

Liberal Democracy Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into ...

and later of the leading centre-right

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right List of political parties in France, political party in France that was one of the two major party, major contemporary political pa ...

Biography

Early life

Dominique Baudis was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He was educated at Sciences Po where he graduated in 1968. His father, Pierre Baudis, served as the mayor of Toulouse.

Career

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, he was a foreign correspondent for TF1 in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

from 1976 to 1977. He was

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

on TF1 from 1977 to 1980 and from 1980 to 1982 on FR3. A member of the

CDS The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

(a member of the centre-right UDF, he was elected to replace his father, Pierre Baudis as mayor of Toulouse in the

1983 French municipal elections Municipal elections were held in France on 6 and 13 March 1983. President François Mitterrand and leader of the Socialist Party held power since May 1981. The left-wing coalition of the Socialists and Communists, in power for only two years, ...

. In 1984, he was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, in 1986 he became President of the Regional Council of the

Midi-Pyrénées Midi-Pyrénées (; oc, Miègjorn-Pirenèus or ; es, Mediodía-Pirineos) is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Occitania. It was the largest region of Metropolitan France by ar ...

, also in 1986 he was elected to the French National Assembly representing

Haute-Garonne's 1st constituency The 1st constituency of the Haute-Garonne is a French legislative constituency in the Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the r ...

. He won re-election in 1988, 1993 and 1997. He led the UDF- RPR list in the 1994 European election. In 2001, Jacques Chirac appointed him President of the

Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel The (, ''lit.'' ''Superior Audiovisual Council''), abbreviated CSA, was a French institution created in 1989 whose role was to regulate the various electronic media in France, such as radio and television. The creation of the was a measure foun ...

(CSA), a post which he held until 2007, when Chirac appointed him President of the

Arab World Institute The ''Institut du Monde Arabe'', French for Arab World Institute, abbreviated ''IMA'', is an organization founded in Paris in 1980 by France with 18 Arab countries to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural an ...

. In 2009, the UMP nominated him to lead the UMP list in the

South-West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

for the 2009 European election. His list won 26.89% and he was elected to the

for a third time. For the first time, the Presidential Majority (meaning all the parties gathered around Nicolas Sarkozy) scored four seats in the European Parliament, two more than the Socialist Party, French South-West's leading force. In some urban areas, such as Toulouse, Bordeaux, Bayonne and Montpellier, he scored more than 30%. In July 2009, he was elected Vice-President of the Commission of Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament and in November 2009 he was named rapporteur on the Association Agreement with Syria. Baudis was nominated by the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

to the new office of Defender of Rights, essentially an ombudsman role, and was appointed by the

Council of State A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...

with effect from July 2011.

References

External links

Dominique Baudis' Official Facebook Profile

Website of the Défenseur des Droits
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baudis, Dominique 1947 births 2014 deaths Deaths from cancer in France Ombudsmen in France Politicians from Paris Mayors of Toulouse MEPs for South-West France 2009–2014 MEPs for France 1984–1989 MEPs for France 1994–1999 Union for a Popular Movement MEPs Union for a Popular Movement politicians Liberal Democracy (France) politicians Lycée Carnot alumni Sciences Po alumni Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur French television journalists French male journalists