Fines are raining down on C8 and the program “Touche pas à mon poste! “. The channel was again sanctioned, Wednesday, May 31, after yet another controversial outing by its flagship host, Cyril Hanouna, this time against Anne Hidalgo.
In a sequence broadcast on October 5, 2022, the presenter had summoned the mayor (PS) of Paris (in his absence) to ” shut up “ And “chasing rats at night instead of talking bullshit”. Enough for Arcom to impose a fine of 300,000 euros on C8, reports the audiovisual regulator in a press release published on Wednesdayjudging these remarks “Like to infringe the rights of the mayor of Paris to respect for her honor and her reputation”.
This sanction of the former CSA against the channel of the Canal + group comes only four months after a record fine of 3.5 million euros, following insults launched by Cyril Hanouna to the deputy (LFI) Louis Boyard, still in the broadcast “Don’t touch my post!” “.
It was when he mentioned the name of Vincent Bolloré, first shareholder of Vivendi, owner of the Canal + group, that the parliamentarian, and former columnist, had drawn the wrath of the host-producer. Vincent Bollore “is not my boss, he is a friend of twenty years”justified Cyril Hanouna in the issue of November 14.
Multiple fines and threat from the minister
Record, this fine was not the first against “TPMP”. In July 2017, the CSA imposed a fine of 3 million euros on C8 after Cyril Hanouna, two months earlier, had tricked a young gay man into making advances to him, live on the air (he actually acted as a deception). In February 2020, the channel was ordered to pay 10,000 euros for showing on the air, on October 31, 2019, intimate photos of TF1 host Karine Ferri. After each sanction, the process starts from scratch with any new violation examined.
Arcom’s latest decision was announced in a context of tensions between Canal +, a subsidiary of the Vivendi group led by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, and the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak. The latter had mentioned at the beginning of February the possibility for Arcom to withdraw from CNews and C8 the frequencies made available to them when they do not respect their obligations. “We were deeply shocked by the remarks made by the Minister of Culture”had reacted Canal + in a press release. “Nearly five minutes of his speech were devoted to criticism of our group and invectives against our C8 and CNews channels”was offended the group.
Since then, Arcom has been seized again in March about a controversial sequence of “TPMP”, where a guest put forward a conspiracy theory about an alleged drug made from children’s blood. At the beginning of April, a preliminary investigation was opened in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) after a report from the Paris police headquarters on the presence of people wrongly presented as BRAV-M police officers in “TPMP “.