Race breakthrough for French TV

Harry Roselmack is currently a presenter with the news channel i-Tele

For the first time, the flagship eight o'clock news on the main French commercial television channel TF1 has been presented by a black journalist.

Harry Roselmack is filling in for the star anchorman Patrick Poivre d'Arvor while he is on holiday.

The move is making headlines in France, where ethnic minorities are considered to be poorly represented in the media.

President Jacques Chirac urged TV stations to hire more people from minorities after last year's riots.

One of the grievances of disaffected youths - most of them descendants of immigrants - was that they were not visible in the mainstream media.

I am neither black nor white, neither man nor woman - I am a journalist Harry Roselmack

A black woman already presents the less high-profile news on the state-run channel France 3, and a man of Algerian background has presented the news on the public station France 2.

But the arrival of Roselmack, 33, on the most-watched evening news programme is considered a real breakthrough.

He was born in Tours, west of Paris, into a family from the French Caribbean island of Martinique.

Roselmack has previously presented the news on smaller channels.

French media are pointing out that he is an excellent journalist.

"When I do interviews, I am neither black nor white, neither man nor woman - I am a journalist," he told the French daily newspaper Le Figaro.