The authority sanctions with a financial penalty of 3.5 million euros the channel of the Canal+ group for the insults made by the host of TPMP against the deputy (LFI) Louis Boyard, November 10 2022.
by Aude Dassonville
The biggest fine ever inflicted on a television operator. It is by a penalty of 3.5 million euros that Arch decided on Thursday, February 9, to close the procedure initiated following the insults made by Cyril Hanouna against the deputy for La France Insoumise Louis Boyard, November 10, 2022, on the set of the C8 program “Touche pas à mon poste”.
Following the recommendations of sanctions made by the independent rapporteur appointed in this case and reached the Arcom on January 17, representatives of the chain were heard Wednesday, February 8, during a hearing carried out, at their Request, behind closed doors. It is at the end of these exchanges that in plenary meeting, the authority stopped this sanction, on the grounds that the remarks made by the animator (“stupid”, “tocard”, “shit”, etc.) “have infringed the rights of the guest, respect for his honor and reputation “. The publisher, in this case C8, failed in his obligation to control the antenna, notes the regulator.
A formal notice has also been pronounced against the chain, so as not to have respected its obligations in terms of honesty and independence of information. During the program, said the Arch, Louis Boyard was “explicitly prevented from expressing a critical point of view with regard to a shareholder of the Canal+group, to which C8 belongs”; The conditions “which guarantee the independence of information” were therefore no longer met when Cyril Hanouna made sure Louis Boyard did not go after his remarks aimed at Vincent Bolloré, first shareholder of Vivendi, owner of the group Canal+.
“obscene game” and “gravelly comments”
Asked about their desire to appeal this decision, neither the Canal+group, nor Vivendi had yet, Thursday at the beginning of the evening, followed up. Canal+ has already challenged Arcom’s decisions several times in the past, with more or less success. If it happened that the Council of State is deteriorating the regulator (in 2019, it enjoined it to reimburse C8 1.1 million euros, after a sanction for deprivation of dissemination of a week of advertising), Canal+ does not always get the case during its appeals.
Thus, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Thursday morning by press release, that, following two sanctions pronounced in 2017, it postponed two requests formed by the Channel-that the Council of State had itself already found.
You have 54.73% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.