Three and a half months had passed since the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom) issued a decision against CNews. On Thursday, November 14, early in the afternoon, he discreetly put an end to this truce by publishing on his site two new financial sanctions, adopted the day before in a plenary session.
The first, of 100,000 euros, sanctions the information channel of the Canal+ group for having presented without contradictions, on February 25 in the program “En quest d’esprit”, abortion as a method “a cause of death” ; In doing so, the broadcaster misunderstood its “obligation of honesty and rigor in the presentation and processing of information”Arcom estimated. The second, for the amount of 50,000 euros, condemns an identical violation: on September 28, 2023, the “Morandini Live” program had hit “inaccurate facts” according to which “Parents of Muslim students had successfully pressured the management of a school in Pau to make a prayer room available to students during a school trip.”. Information “mobilized” For “to fuel a debate on stage (…) pretext for virulent and controversial positions”argues the Authority.
These two decisions arise at the moment in which the regulator establishes with CNews (but also with CStar, Canal+, BFM-TV, LCI, etc.) its next agreement, that is, the regulatory text that establishes the obligations that the channel undertakes. to respect in return. of an authorization to broadcast on DTT for the next ten years. A delicate moment that seemed, until then, to be accompanied by a certain discretion on the part of Arcom, after a spring and early summer marked by several painful arbitrations for the Bolloré group networks – starting with the refusal to grant C8 a new authorization . At the end of July, the regulator even issued a “caution” to CNews, after having had to re-examine a referral from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) dating back to May 2021. “ All that for that reason? »the NGO then joked about its X account, believing it was“a weak sanction, which gives rise to fear that the same causes produce the same effects.”
The “obvious and lasting imbalances” sanctioned
RSF’s request, presented to the Council of State, forced the regulator to redefine the rules on respect for pluralism of currents of thought and opinions in the media. Their deliberation, expressed on July 18, should have been accompanied by another regarding respect for “information independence” (towards the shareholders who own the media). I don’t see anything on this topic, RSF on 1Ahem October once again seized the Council of State, learned the worldTherefore, the president of the studies, prospective and cooperation section of the highest administrative jurisdiction “may prescribe the measures it considers useful to ensure the due execution of the decision of February 13, 2024”specifies the request of Patrice Spinosi, RSF’s lawyer, which the newspaper was able to consult.
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