The French Council of State has just confirmed its closure of the right-wing TV channel C8, setting a dangerous precedent of state censorship in the media. Protests are growing from public figures who are concerned about the increasing and institutionalised restrictions on freedom of expression.
The C8 channel, owned by the Catholic billionaire Vincent Bolloré, had been on probation for several weeks following a decision by the media regulatory authority, ARCOM, to withdraw its broadcasting licence. The channel had attempted an administrative appeal, which has now been rejected by the Council of State. It will cease broadcasting definitively on the evening of February 28th.
Until now, C8 occupied a privileged place in the French audiovisual landscape. The Canal+ group, owned by Vincent Bolloré and operator of the channel, denounced a decision
unprecedented in the history of DTT [Digital Terrestrial Television], leading to the outright ousting of the C8 channel, which has been part of the audiovisual landscape for nearly 20 years, always ranking as the leading DTT channel and attracting more than 9 million cumulative viewers every day.
One of the channel’s star presenters, Cyril Hanouna, a Frenchman of Lebanese origin, was the target of virulent attacks from the Left, who accused him of having ‘rolled out the red carpet for far-right ideas’ on his programmes. He continues his work as a columnist on the radio station Europe 1, which also belongs to Bolloré’s group. On Wednesday, February 19th, he hosted Bartolomé Lenoir, a UDR deputy—allied to the Rassemblement National (RN)—who shared his concerns with listeners:
The closure of C8 opens a major Pandora’s box for freedom of expression in France.
Many right-wing politicians and media personalities have expressed outrage at ARCOM’s decision and its confirmation by the Council of State. Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Les Républicains (LR) group of deputies in the National Assembly and candidate for the presidency of his party, denounced this decision on X. He criticised the omnipotence of ARCOM, “an obscure administrative authority of the kind of which there are far too many in our country.”
Arcom is making a mockery of the will of the French people by closing down a popular channel because it belongs to a group that does not think ‘properly’!
The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, who is competing with Laurent Wauquiez for the presidency of LR, made a similar speech, deploring the disappearance of a “space for expression.”
On the side of the RN, Marine Le Pen denounced “the threats that weigh heavily on pluralism and freedom of opinion.” “The cessation of activity of C8 is a terrible regression and a worrying decision that proves the Ayatollahs of single-thought, the diktats of a sectarian left that only wants to see and hear one voice, that of the system,” explained the leader of the RN deputies in a message on X.
The president of the sovereignist movement Les Patriotes, Florian Philippot, made a link between this decision and the remarks of the American vice-president JD Vance on freedom of expression, which has been widely commented on and condemned in the French mainstream press. “Apart from that, the System tells us that JD Vance is talking nonsense about censorship and the collapse of freedom of expression!,” he noted ironically in a post on X.
No fewer than 400 employees will lose their jobs as a result of the channel’s closure, but the social consequences of this decision do not seem to be of great concern to the Left.
The channel’s personalities do not intend to leave it at that. On February 13th, Cyril Hanouna raised the possibility of an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. “We may be on the brink of a huge state scandal,” he said on air, just a few days before the final decision of the Council of State was made public.
Entertainment channel NRJ12 will also go off the air at the end of the month.
