The Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (Arcom) has imposed two new financial penalties on the channel CNewsas announced on its website on Thursday. The decision was taken the previous day at a plenary session. The regulator had not sanctioned the Canal+ news channel since July.

The first fine, of 100,000 euros, penalizes the news channel for presenting abortion without contradiction as a “serious issue”. “a cause of mortality”.. This was on February 25 on the program “En quête d’esprit”. In Arcom’s view, the broadcaster had misunderstood his “obligation of honesty and rigor in the presentation and treatment of information”.

“Inaccurate facts”

The second fine is 50,000 euros after an on-set debate on September 28, 2023 on the “Morandini Live” program. The Authority notes “virulent and polemical stances”. whereas the initial facts, according to which “parents of Muslim pupils had successfully lobbied the management of a secondary school in Pau to make a prayer room available to pupils on the occasion of a school trip”, were “inaccurate“.

Along with C8, CNews is the only French channel to have received financial penalties from the CSA’s successor. The Bolloré group’s two channels have received no fewer than 47 reprimands from Arcom and the CSA, according to a count by the newspaper Le Monde .

Eliminated from DTT at the end of February 2025C8 will challenge Arcom’s decision before the Conseil d’Etat on Friday, and is stepping up the pressure with three months to go. At the end of last week, the channel launched a support petition, which has already gathered over 400,000 signatures.

The hearing on the merits before the highest administrative court will take place this afternoon, and the decision will be taken under advisement in the following weeks. The NRJ 12 channel, whose frequency has also not been renewed, is also involved.