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PARIS (AFP) — French television channel C8 was set to go off air Friday following a decision by the country’s media watchdog, sparking an outcry among right-wing politicians.
The channel has been home to star presenter Cyril Hanouna, a household name in France for outspoken shows that often focus on far-right talking points around security and immigration.
Hanouna’s TPMP show has racked up a total of 7.6 million euros ($7.9 million) in fines from the Arcom broadcast regulator for offenses including using vulgar language to insult a left-wing lawmaker.
The C8 channel is part of the Canal+ group in conservative billionaire Vincent Bollore’s media empire. C8 and another channel, NRJ12, will go off air after the regulator decided against renewing their licenses.
France’s top court, the Council of State, this month rejected the TV stations’ appeals.
The court said the regulator was legally justified in taking into account the C8 channel’s “repeated infringements in recent years of its legal and contractual obligations, particularly in relation to human rights, the protection of minors and broadcasting control.”
The court also sided with the regulator over NRJ12 citing its lack of original programming.
Far-right and conservative politicians have slammed what they called a political decision. Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally party denounced an act of “political censorship.”
“One cannot help but be scandalized by the intolerable levity shown by those who legitimize this decision, forgetting that freedom, this fundamental right protected by the constitution, is always the freedom of those who think differently,” she said on X this week.
Laurent Wauquiez, the head of right-wing Republicans party in parliament, called Arcom “an administrative body that has no democratic legitimacy.”
President Emmanuel Macron has insisted this is “not a political decision.”
With an audience share of 3.1%, C8 was the sixth most popular channel in France in January, according to Mediametrie, a media consultancy.
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By Agence France-Presse
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