France

[FR] CSA Bans Airtime before 10.30 pm for Radio Programmes that Could Shock Young People

IRIS 2004-4:1/19

Amélie Blocman

Légipresse

According to Article 15 of the Act of 30 September 1986 (as amended), the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (audiovisual regulatory body - CSA) guarantees the protection of children and young people and ensures that programmes likely to be damaging to the physical, mental or moral development of minors are not made available to the public by a sound broadcasting service unless it is assured, because of the broadcasting time chosen, that minors would not normally be likely to hear them. Under this Article, the CSA adopted a deliberation on 10 February prohibiting any sound broadcasting service from broadcasting programmes likely to be offensive to listeners under the age of 16 between 6 am and 10.30 pm. The recommendation is addressed more particularly to music stations directed at young people; these mainly offer morning programmes between 6 and 9 am, and phone-in programmes in the evening, two types of programme that are particularly prone to veering out of control. Last November, for instance, the station NRJ decided to stop broadcasting its programme by Maurad after receiving formal notice from the CSA referring to "insulting and pornographic comments". Pornographic or extremely violent broadcasts are banned altogether by the CSA's deliberation, precisely because there is no technical means available for sound broadcasting services to ensure that only adults are able to access the programmes. A number of questions nevertheless remain unanswered. Thus the chairman of Skyrock, which broadcasts a phone-in programme during the week from 9 pm to midnight, commented that the time when there were most young people listening to the radio was in fact after 10.30 pm! Moreover, the Chairman of the Syndicat interprofessionnel des télévisions et radio indépendantes (syndicate of independent radio and television stations) wondered whether the mere fact of talking about sexuality was likely to offend the sensibilities of under-16s; he concluded that the CSA needed to make the deliberation more precise.