The French TV channel C8, known for airing the popular right-wing show Touche pas à mon Poste hosted by Cyril Hanouna, will cease operations by 2025 following a ruling by the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom).
Arcom’s decision, based on what it said was “the interest of each project for the public with regard to the overriding imperative of pluralism”, came after a review of proposals from 24 TV channels, including C8, which is owned by media mogul Vincent Bolloré, in July.
The authority chose not to reallocate a digital terrestrial television slot to C8.
The channel’s renewal was in jeopardy due to controversies surrounding Touche pas à mon Poste and Hanouna.
It has faced 23 sanctions since 2016, with more than half occurring in the past four years, primarily involving Hanouna’s on-air behaviour.
In February 2023, the show was fined €3.5 million for comments he made during a heated exchange with guest MP Louis Boyard, which Arcom deemed violated the guest’s rights and reputation.
During the recent French snap elections, Hanouna also faced issues with his programme On marche sur la Tête on Europe 1, another Bolloré-owned outlet, which received a formal Arcom notice for “lack of moderation and honesty”.
Despite C8 deciding to broadcast Touche pas à mon Poste with a delay of up to 45 minutes to mediate further Hanouna outbursts, Arcom decided to pull the plug on one of the Conservative billionaire Bolloré’s popular shows.
C8 channel is the entertainment sister channel of the news station CNews and part of the Canal+ group in Bolloré’s stable.
CNews, another channel often reprimanded by Arcom, will remain on air despite being fined €80,000 on July 10 for presenting what the body deemed were unbalanced views on migration and climate change.
Popular Conservative French news channel CNews was fined €80,000 by the country’s media regulator for expressing negative viewpoints regarding migration and climate change without offering suitable commentary for balance. https://t.co/Dwxn5C8SRi
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 10, 2024
Critics argued that decision was politically motivated.
Olivier Truchot of BFMTV‘s Les Grandes Gueules show suggested that Arcom’s decision was both factual and political.
“Arcom undoubtedly took this decision for factual reasons, non-compliance with specifications and sanctions. But there’s also the fact that there’s Vincent Bolloré, who is criticised for a political project with very right-wing and anti-Macronist oriented channels,” he said on July 24.
“Then there’s Cyril Hanouna, the most emblematic and controversial person on the French TV airwaves, and we’re going to say we’re censoring him,” he added.
Eric Ciotti, ally of French hard-right National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen and head of the right-wing The Republicans in the French Parliament also criticised the decision, labelling it a “democratic scandal”.
“Are we still a country of freedom? Friends of power are rewarded, and others are punished. The most popular free channel is gagged. Deadly drift for our democracy,” he said.
Scandale démocratique retentissant avec la censure de C8 par l’État!
Sommes-nous toujours un pays de liberté ?
Les amis du pouvoir récompensés, les autres sanctionnés.
La chaîne gratuite au plus grand succès populaire est bâillonnée.
Dérive mortelle pour notre démocratie. https://t.co/GsQBq2ylwi
— Eric Ciotti (@ECiotti) July 24, 2024
Others welcomed the regulator’s move.
“With this decision, Arcom has drawn the first logical conclusions from the excesses of the antennas controlled by Vincent Bolloré,” said Thibault Bruttin, Managing Director of international media NGO Reporters Without Borders France.
