Popular Conservative French news channel CNews has been fined €80,000 by the country’s media regulator for expressing negative viewpoints regarding migration and climate change without offering suitable commentary for balance – news of the regulatory intervention comes in the wake of research showing publicly funded media channels in the country overwhelmingly field left-wing guests and promote left-wing ideas.
The French Communications Regulation Authority, Arcom, imposed two financial penalties on CNews, for “failing to meet its obligations”.
Under French media regulations laid down in a 1986 law, all channels, whether public or private, must give equal airtime to people from different political parties during electoral periods.
One fine of €60,000 was given over a broadcast late last year, where two studio guests declared “immigration kills…without any reaction from the host or the other people present on set”, the media regulator wrote in its decision.
“The use of the formula ‘immigration kills’ by two guests is likely to represent people of immigrant origin, as a whole, as a deadly risk factor,” Arcom ruled, adding: “Such stigmatisation, which reduces immigrants to the status of dangerous people… is likely to incite hatred against them because of their race, nationality or ethnic origin and encourage discriminatory behaviour towards them.”
The other penalty of €20,000 was in light of another broadcast, in July 2023, when a guest stated: “Anthropogenic climate change is a lie, a scam. At some point, we need to look at things scientifically; it’s not a law of science.
“There has been global warming since the mid-19th century, but it follows a mini ice age … so the climate has always evolved and will continue to do so. But to explain that it’s because of humans, no, that’s a conspiracy.
“And why does it carry so much weight?”, the guest continued. “Because it justifies state intervention in our lives, and it also absolves the state from having to reduce its public spending. Elisabeth Borne [the then Prime Minister] announced that we’re going to spend €60 billion a year to fight against… against this so-called warming.”
“This way, the State says, ‘Well, I can’t make savings, there’s global warming.’ It’s very convenient, and it allows intervention in the agenda, in people’s lives, housing, transport, industry, agriculture, and it’s… for me, it’s a form of totalitarianism. As a liberal economist, it’s a form of totalitarianism.”
Again, Arcom ruled that there had been no attempt at balance.
“The participant was thus able to express a controversial thesis not verified by established scientific data without the position he defended being put into perspective and without any contradiction on this subject being expressed following these remarks,” the regulator said.
CNews, which is part of the Canal+ group owned by the billionaire industrialist Vincent Bolloré, has in recent years seen viewing figures soar.
Dubbed by critics ‘the French Fox News’, it features rowdy debate shows dealing with issues like immigration and crime, which mainstream channels choose to ignore. According to the channel’s director general, Serge Nedjar, while these subjects were “for a very, very long time… classed as being the topics of the far right”, today they are “what interests 80% of French people”.
News of the regulator’s intervention follows the French Council of State – the country’s highest administrative court – overturning an initial decision by the media regulator not to act against CNews.
Last year, Arcom’s president, Roch-Olivier Maistre, argued that CNews “strictly respected political pluralism” in terms of the amount of speaking time given to politicians. While acknowledging that it was “becoming an opinion channel” on the lines of conservative Fox News in the US, he went on to say that it was not the regulator’s job to look at the channel’s commentators.
However, in February 2024, a case brought by campaign group Reporters sans frontières argued that the Canal+ channel had breached its legal obligations, and that Arcom had ignored repeated calls for it to remind the news channel of its obligation to ensure the “honesty, independence and pluralism” of its coverage.
The judge in the case subsequently criticised Arcom for limiting its ruling to the compliance issue over how much airtime had been given to political figures, rather than examining whether the channel was presenting true diversity of thought and opinion, and gave it six months to examine whether CNews was complying with its obligations to ensure “balanced and independent” journalism.
Using vague and capacious language, the State Council went on to say that the regulator should assess news independent “in terms of the channel’s operating conditions and programming characteristics”.
In a statement, Arcom welcomed the decision, which effectively expands what is currently considered ‘editorial content’ for regulatory purposes, to include contributions from pundits as well as politicians.
“With this renewed interpretation of the 1986 law,” Arcom said, “the Council of State strengthens the capacity of control by the regulator of the obligations of these media in terms of honesty, pluralism and independence of information, while respecting their editorial freedom.”
However, others expressed concern at the ruling. Speaking on CNews following the hearing, journalist Franz-Olivier Giesbert described the court’s decision as “very serious, unbelievable”, saying France was “heading, bit by bit, towards a government of judges”.
Eugenié Bastié, a regular contributor to CNews, questioned how the tighter controls would be applied. “Will commentators have to declare who they vote for?” she asked on X.
Meanwhile Eric Ciotti, head of the conservative Republicans party, spoke of an “inquisition” into the opinions of commentators and journalists.
News of CNews’s financial sanction by a regulator with a now substantially expanded purview comes in the wake of research which found that French media broadcasters are illegally discriminating against those on the political Right.
According to the Thomas More Institute report, published in May, publicly funded television and radio channels in the country are overwhelmingly fielding left-wing guests and promoting left-wing ideas, despite having a legal obligation to be politically balanced in their coverage.
Analysing a list of 587 guests who appeared on France’s most prominent publicly funded media between February 19 to 24, 2024, researchers found about half of them could be considered politically neutral, 25 per cent fell under the “Socialist and progressive” label, while another 21 per cent of the guests were viewed as holding a “Macronist” Liberal point of view. By contrast, just 4 per cent – or 26 people – were classified as leaning to the Right.
Of those brought on to discuss climate and ecology, 65.6 per cent held pro-green agenda views, while 57 per cent expressed disapproval for politicians deemed to be to the Right of Macron. The research team added that 100 per cent of guests asked about the issue of diversity and multiculturalism expressed approval of the ideological precepts.
