On November 30, 2021, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) wrote to the Superior Audiovisual Council to request “the initiation of formal notice proceedings against the CNews television channel”on the grounds that the news channel of the Canal+ group did not respect “its legal, regulatory and contractual obligations”. It seems that the response from the body, which has since become the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom), did not convince the non-governmental organization (NGO). On Wednesday April 13, she seized the Council of State of an appeal “to challenge Arcom’s refusal to act against CNews’ breaches of its obligations”. “From our point of view, based on existing law, Arcom can do more than it does todayjustifies Christophe Deloire, the secretary general of RSF. We want her to live up to her role. »
The first of the arguments defended by the NGO is reminiscent of the debate on the sex of angels: it asks Arcom to point out that CNews is no longer a news media, but an opinion channel ( which French law does not allow). In support of his demonstration, a multitude of press articles which have drawn up the report, but also an ad hoc study carried out by the semiologist François Jost, based on the analysis of a week of broadcast of the channel, at the beginning of February. In its request for formal notice at the end of 2021, RSF already mentioned the “massive dissemination of biased subjective opinions”contempt “independence, honesty and pluralism of information” to which CNews is bound.
In its response to the association, sent on April 5, Arcom replied that the agreement (the contractual text) signed by the channel “does not set any quantitative or qualitative obligation” to the dissemination of information “updated in real time”. In other words: without an obligation to reach any level, there is no offense that holds. “If Arcom is not clearer in the drafting of an agreement, while it is responsible for its application, it is as if it were formulating incantations or pious wishes”, criticizes Christophe Deloire. In this letter, far from convincing of its effectiveness despite the details of the various decisions it has taken with regard to the channel, the authority “justifies his inaction”, believes the former journalist.
A law “obviously confused, vague and incomplete”
This is not the first time that the NGO has asked the regulatory body to take up the case of CNews. Already in 2015, she had, hand in hand with the collective Informer n’est pas une offense, demanded the opening of an investigation into Vincent Bolloré, the first shareholder of Vivendi, owner of Canal +. At the time, it was a question of demonstrating that documentaries had been censored by the businessman. “We didn’t win”, recalls Mr. Deloire. Canal+ had set up an ethics committee, and adopted an ethics charter in 2017, in accordance with its obligations. A vast joke, still regrets RSF, since the text “authorizes breaches of journalistic ethics”such as the possibility granted to journalists to lend themselves to “households” – paid external collaborations in the service of the communication of a person or an organization.
You have 28.52% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.