France’s audiovisual regulator Arcom has challenged a study by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on CNews’s pluralism, featured in France 2’s “Complément d’enquête.” Arcom states no rule violations occurred in March 2025. CNews hosts have dismissed the probe as biased.
On Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released a report on CNews, owned by Vincent Bolloré. The NGO analyzed 700,000 on-screen banners over a month and concluded the channel cheats on political balance rules to favor the far right, using “nighttime catch-ups” to create an illusion of pluralism.
Thursday evening, France 2’s “Complément d’enquête,” directed by Tristan Waleckx and spanning eight months, relied on this study to elaborate the accusations. A media figure described the setup as “stitched with white thread.”
Arcom challenged these findings. “There are no circumventions of political pluralism rules on CNews in March 2025, and if there had been, we would have identified and intervened,” the regulator stated before broadcast.
On Friday, November 28, CNews host Pascal Praud responded in “L’heure des pros.” He called the RSF study “manifestly bogus” with “biased judgment parameters,” mocking revelations like his fondness for Nicolas Sarkozy or no link between immigration and insecurity. Praud criticized the public broadcaster’s 4 billion euros annual cost, questioning privatization.
Mathieu Bock-Côté, CNews columnist since 2021 and Éric Zemmour’s successor, viewed the show as merely prosecuting the editorial line, without evidence of fraudulent information fabrication. He credits CNews’s success to covering realities denied elsewhere.
