France

[FR] LCI warned to meet its obligation to exercise honesty and rigour in the presentation and processing of information

IRIS 2023-4:1/5

Amélie Blocman

Légipresse

In a decision of 8 March 2023, the Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique ( French audiovisual regulator – ARCOM) issued a formal notice to the company La Chaîne Info (LCI), provider of the 24/7 television news service LCI, urging it to meet its obligation to exercise honesty and rigour in the presentation and processing of information.

This decision follows two contentious news items broadcast in September 2022. The first, shown during the programme “Un œil sur le monde”, concerned disinformation in Russian media. It included a report by Russian TV channel Rossiya One about the energy crisis in Europe that mentioned protests in Paris on Saturday 3 September 2022 casting doubt on the effectiveness of the economic sanctions taken against Russia. Footage of a demonstration in Paris taken from this report was broadcast. Back in the studio, the LCI presenter said: “So there we are. There were no demonstrations... this weekend, it’s not true at all. […] This is clearly a case of .... Russian propaganda aimed at the Russian people.” These comments were corroborated by a journalist in the studio, who said: “You can clearly see how they distort the images, adding their own subtitles to make it seem like everything is happening as they say (…).”

Contrary to these claims, a demonstration against European sanctions against Russia did in fact take place in Paris on Saturday 3 September 2022. Therefore, in ARCOM’s view, the broadcaster had breached its obligation to exercise honesty and rigour in the presentation and processing of information. It had therefore infringed Article 1 of the audiovisual regulator’s decision of 18 April 2018, which was based on Article 3-1 of the Law of 30 September 1986, referred to in Article 2-3-7 of its licence agreement. Under the aforementioned decision, broadcasters “must guarantee the honesty of information and of news programmes. (…) They must exercise rigour in the presentation and processing of information”.

The second item was broadcast during the programme “24h Pujadas” on 12 September 2022. During this news bulletin, a report entitled “Anti-work benefits: the truth about the figures” was shown. The report included an infographic comparing the income of a couple with two dependent children, each earning the minimum wage, with that of an unemployed couple with the same number of children. This infographic was inaccurate because it suggested that the unemployed couple were receiving various benefits that could in fact not be combined. It therefore did not prove that the unemployed couple’s monthly income was higher than that of the working couple. ARCOM again concluded that La Chaîne Info had breached its obligation to exercise honesty and rigour in the presentation and processing of information. Sanctions may be taken against the broadcaster if it does not comply with the formal notice.