Arcom makes eleven proposals for political pluralism during elections

On the set of LCI, in the program “Face aux Françaises”, where eight candidates for the presidential election spent a great oral of twenty minutes, on March 7, 2022. AGNES DHERBEYS / MYOP FOR “THE WORLD”

It was expected… but displays several surprise offers. The Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom, ex-CSA) published its report on the presidential and legislative campaigns on Wednesday, November 2. During the first half of 2022, the oversight body was responsible for ensuring the application of the texts governing the editorial coverage of electoral campaigns as well as the organization of official audiovisual campaigns, while guaranteeing political pluralism.

In this 113-page report, Arcom begins by giving the audiovisual media and platforms a thumbs up by drawing up a « positive number » the coverage of two campaigns, despite the epidemic context of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, “which notably had the effect of reducing campaign events”.

“In general, the principles of fairness and equality which applied in the audiovisual media to the interventions of the candidates and their supporters were respected”notes the regulatory authority, while deploring nevertheless that “circumstances did not allow the organization of debates between the candidates for the first round of the presidential election”.

Read also Presidential election 2022: view the speaking times of each candidate in the media

A significant reduction in airtime

Despite a longer electoral period than in 2017 (16 weeks against 14), Arcom notes that the campaign for the 2022 presidential election has resulted in a significant reduction in the airtime devoted to candidates and their supporters: 2,791 hours, compared to 3,742 hours in 2017, a decrease of 25%.

During the presidential campaign, Arcom must have reminded several media of the need to correct certain imbalances. During the “speaking time” and “airtime” equity period (from 1^is January to March 7), warnings were thus sent to BFM-TV for an overexposure of Eric Zemmour, to RMC-Découverte which had put too much emphasis on Emmanuel Macron, as well as to RTL, which gave an important place to the Reconquest candidate and the ecologist Yannick Jadot. Public radio France Culture was also called to order for “many imbalances in each of the time slots” for the second period (from March 8 to 27) and a formal notice – an approach which has the value of a warning before possible sanctions – was also pronounced on Friday April 15 against Europe 1, which followed two previous warnings.

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