France: a million signatures for ban on CNews
In France, more than a million people have signed a petition calling for news channel CNews to be banned. However, on 10 November a committee of the National Assembly decided not to pursue the issue. The channel, owned by media magnate Vincent Bolloré, is accused of promoting racist and far-right views. Commentators discuss the political influence of large media groups.
Press freedom applies to all
No media outlet should be banned in a democracy, La Libre Belgique admonishes:
“It is clear that there are serious abuses at CNews. However, let us leave the media muzzling to authoritarian regimes. In China, Russia, North Korea and Cuba, pluralism is stifled. ... Democrats must counter their opponents with arguments and facts. Freedom of the press serves to protect all media outlets – regardless of whether or not one agrees with their convictions and analyses. Pluralism is not always comfortable, but it remains the best antidote to any form of groupthink. Let us defend it without naivety, without complacency and without exceptions. Citizens who attempt to silence voices they find disagreeable should ask themselves who will decide tomorrow on whether they, too, must be silenced.”
Hatred is not opinion
L’Humanité rejects the idea that this constitutes an attack on press freedom:
“The Bolloré Group is deploying its ideological shield. ... The channel, it argues, is merely an opinion-based media outlet, just as legitimate as the politically engaged press. The argument is a solid one. In this case, however, it is based on a wholesale deception. Incitement to racial hatred, defamation and public insults are not opinions. They are criminal offences. With 27 formal warnings and fines totalling 630,000 euros since 2019, the channel is no longer contributing to democratic debate. It is a repeat offender.”
Devastating concentration of power
In an open letter published in Le Nouvel Obs, school and student unions call for sanctions and a boycott:
“With just a few months to go before the presidential election, CNews is laying the ideological groundwork for the far right. If we allow a media outlet to turn hatred into a spectacle every single day, we are not defending pluralism, we are destroying it. Our opposition is therefore in no way an attack on press freedom. Press freedom protects those who inform, verify facts, challenge and set the record straight. ... A single man owns more than 50 media outlets, is using them to spread propaganda to promote the Rassemblement National's agenda, and even controls the publishers that produce our school textbooks. This is not pluralism but a concentration of power that threatens democracy.”