France

[FR] ARCOM fines C8 EUR 300 000 for another TPMP breach

IRIS 2023-7:1/11

Amélie Blocman

Légipresse

On 31 May, the Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (French audiovisual regulator – ARCOM) fined the C8 company EUR 300 000 for comments made during an episode of the programme ‘Touche pas à mon poste’, presented by Cyril Hanouna, on 5 October 2022.

Following a reference to the decision taken by several French municipal authorities not to install giant screens for the transmission of matches at the World Cup in Qatar or open fan zones, the mayor of Paris, who did not participate in the programme, was called various names by the presenter, who said she should “keep her mouth shut” and “hunt rats at night instead of spouting rubbish”, accused her of being part of a “band of morons” and told her to “stop pissing us about”, using the expression “keep your mouth shut” several times.

In ARCOM’s view, these comments, which were directed not only at the position of the mayor of Paris, but also at the person in that role, Anne Hidalgo, were violent and vulgar. The high level of aggression, repetition and accumulation was sufficient to harm the mayor’s honour and reputation. The regulator therefore held that the programme had breached Article 2-3-4 of the channel’s licence agreement, which requires the broadcaster to respect “rights to privacy, image, honour and reputation as defined by the law and case law”.

ARCOM added that these words had been repeatedly directed at the mayor by the presenter himself without anyone on the set trying to temper or tone down his remarks. The broadcaster had therefore failed to control programme content.

The EUR 300 000 fine takes into account the “previous sanctions imposed for past violations of the same obligations”. C8 had been officially warned on 30 March 2010 and 1 July 2015, and fined on 26 July 2017 and 18 December 2019. It had also been fined a record EUR 3.5 million after Cyril Hanouna aimed insults at French MP Louis Boyard of the ‘La France Insoumise’ political party.