Arcom, the audiovisual regulator, has put CNews, the leading news channel in 2025, on notice for comments made on air on immigration or Islam during two sequences that could incite “discrimination”, according to a decision published Tuesday in the Official Journal.
On January 29 in the program “La grande interview”, the mayor of Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) Marie-Hélène Thoraval declared that the knife attacks were “of a cultural nature”, their perpetrators not being “native French” and having “origins which are more linked with (…) Islam”.
In its decision of December 17, Arcom considered that “such stigmatization”, which “did not provoke any reaction from the host” Sonia Mabrouk, is “likely to encourage discriminatory behavior”.
“Comments convey many stereotypes”
Then, on March 20 in the program “Morandini Live”, the journalist from the far-right media Frontières Jordan Florentin presented immigrants as “masses” who “cannot necessarily acclimatize with our values, our morals and our culture” and whose arrival in France would bring about a “great replacement”.
Arcom ruled that “these comments convey numerous particularly defamatory stereotypes against immigrants as a whole, likely to encourage discriminatory behavior against them because of their nationality or their origin”.
Furthermore, “if these remarks were partly contradicted, this contradiction was not sufficient” and Jean-Marc Morandini, presenter of the show, “took the side of the person who made them”, according to the regulator.
Contacted by AFP, CNews did not immediately react to Arcom’s decision.
The audiovisual regulator has the power to intervene with the channels to which it gives authorization to broadcast, to remind them of their obligations. In the scale of Arcom’s interventions, the formal notice follows the warning and can lead to a financial sanction in the event of further non-compliance with obligations.
CNews, in the hands of conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, continued its rise in 2025, becoming the leading news channel in France in terms of audiences, ahead of BFMTV.