Counting the words of editorial writers? “daredevil and dangerous”, warns the media regulator

2023-05-28 17:53:44

Asked this Sunday about the respect of political pluralism by the CNews channel, the president of Arcom Roch-Olivier Maistre recalled the principle of editorial freedom of the media.

Should the speaking time of journalists and editorial writers on radio and television channels be counted? “I scream daredevil and danger“said Roch-Olivier Maistre, president of Arcom, the media regulator, Sunday on France 5. “Editorial writers are journalists, they have press cards. Until further notice, I do not know of any administrative authority in a democracy that is beginning to control journalists“, affirmed the number one of l’arcom on the set of the showC media». «This falls under the editorial freedom of a channel“, recalled the senior official.

Roch-Olivier Maistre was asked about respect for political pluralism by the CNews channel, some of whose editorial writers are known for their right-wing positioning, such as Éric Zemmour, a former polemicist for the channel who became leader of the far-right Reconquête! party. “This rule“, within the meaning of the law of 1986 relating to the freedom of communication, “is respectedby CNews, indicated Roch-Olivier Maistre. “That, really, I warn, I have said this many times in Parliament – ​​the legislator will do what he wants, of course – but to start wanting to count journalists and editorialists, I shout + daredevil and danger+“, he added.

Read alsoCounting editorial writers’ time: Do progressives have a problem with free speech?

“Cut off heads”

The president of the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom) then considered that certain referrals filed by listeners or viewers reflected “a form of intolerance» Ambient. And the latter to give as examples referrals to a caustic song by a humorist from France Inter making fun of Jesus Christ or an episode of the soap opera “More beautiful lifein which actresses spoke of their wish to resort to surrogacy (GPA).

«It’s not massive like lashings. But now, you don’t like an editorialist, you don’t like a humorist, you don’t like a soap opera, we seize Arcom and Arcom must immediately cut off heads. No, that’s not how it works“, he recalled. The role of the regulator is alsoto take a step back, distance“, he developed. In terms of humor and creation, “the regulator, of course, has an extremely large tolerance position and not at all a censor“Defended Roch-Olivier Maistre.