Petition to shut down CNews gathers over 500,000 signatures

The National Assembly’s rules stipulate that a petition reaching this number of signatures can be the subject of a public session debate. However, a parliamentary commission must first examine the petition and decide whether to classify it or draft a report. Therefore, a debate is not automatic.

A previous example, a petition against the law regarding the presumption of legitimate use of weapons by law enforcement, also exceeded 500,000 signatures, but was classified by the Law Commission in July.

The current petition, launched in June, saw a sharp increase in the number of signatures at the end of October, rising from fewer than 100,000 to over 500,000.

CNews reacted by stating: “We will not comment on this political petition.”

The channel, owned by the Canal+ group and controlled by billionaire Vincent Bolloré, is regularly accused of promoting far-right opinions, which the channel denies, claiming to defend freedom of expression.

The petition, initiated by an individual, describes CNews as a “propaganda machine” rather than a news channel.

These accusations have intensified following the racist attack in Trappes on October 23, where Kévin T., aged 39, is suspected of targeting “people (…) of Muslim, African, or North African type,” according to National Antiterrorism Prosecutor Olivier Christen.

The mayor of Trappes, Ali Rabeh, among other left-wing figures, has accused the media, and particularly CNews, of possible responsibility for this attack, due to the space given to discourses stigmatizing immigrants and people of immigrant origin.

Last June, CNews received a formal notice from Arcom (the Authority for Regulation of Audiovisual Media) for a “manifest and sustained imbalance in the expression of currents of thought and opinion” on its airwaves, particularly concerning the threat that immigration and Islam represent to French society.

The teams of CNews, and particularly the program “100% Frontières” (100% Borders), have been the target of demonstrations in recent days, with images of these confrontations regularly broadcast by the channel.

The Paris headquarters of CNews and Europe 1 was also targeted by approximately one hundred people on October 17, during a national day of action marked by violence and acts of intimidation, denounced by the two media outlets.