In April, the Paris public prosecutor’s office announced an investigation into suspected hate speech on CNews. The background to the potential case against France’s largest conservative TV channel, and the fourth largest overall, was allegedly racist comments made following the election of Bally Bagayoko (LFI) as mayor of Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, reported France 24 at the time.
CNews, which is controlled by the fabulously wealthy businessman Vincent Bolloré and has grown from almost nothing in less than ten years, is a thorn in the side of France’s political establishment, where it is often described as far-right, conspiracy-theorist, climate-denying, anti-woke, pro-Russian, pro-Trump and pro-Netanyahu.
The channel has categorically dismissed the allegations of racist remarks as baseless, but critics of CNews, who regard it as France’s answer to Fox News in the US, maintain that its frequent coverage of issues relating to immigration and security ‘fuels far-right narratives’.
On 10 June, a petition was launched to ‘remove CNews from French broadcasting’ on the grounds that the channel spreads propaganda rather than news. On 2 November, Le Monde reported that the campaign had surpassed 500,000 signatures.
At the same time, political divisions are intensifying in France, where the media landscape is one of the main battlegrounds. Reuters reported on 2 November:
Critics notably say CNews’agenda increasingly follows the lines taken by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN), from which the channel could benefit if, as polls suggest, Le Pen wins the 2027 Presidential election and fulfils her promise to privatise public broadcasting, which CNews has long criticised.
For a time, the high number of signatures raised the prospect that the matter might end up before the French National Assembly:
Under National Assembly rules, a public debate can be organised in the Assembly if a petition attracts at least 500,000 signatures. A Commission must however first review the petition and decide whether a debate can take place.
Following the racist attack in Trappes on 23 October – in which 39-year-old Kevin Tessier drove around the municipality shooting at people he believed to be Africans or Muslims, killing 26-year-old Pengo Bossio Wangi and injuring seven others – the campaign against CNews has gained momentum. On 9 November, Libération that the number of signatures had exceeded one million.
On 10 November, however, the National Assembly’s committee decided not to open a debate on CNews, as reported by Le Monde reported on the same day. During the vote in the committee, the proposal was rejected by 28 votes to 25. However, the Presidency of the National Assembly has the power to override the decision and rule otherwise.
CNews is not the only media outlet under the political spotlight of the French establishment. The newspaper *Journal du Dimanche*, which shifted to a conservative editorial line after being taken over by Vincent Bolloré a few years ago, is also the subject of the same accusations as the TV channel.
