Petition to shut down CNews in France reaches one million signatures, Digi Mart USA News (France): A petition on the website of the French National Assembly calling for CNews to be removed from French audiovisual broadcasting has reached one million signatures, according to a French publisher report. The petition compares the channel to a “propaganda machine” and to the American network Fox News.
The petition was launched in June by a private individual and gained momentum after a racially motivated attack in Trappes, near Paris, on October 23. It reached 500,000 signatures last Monday.
Passing that threshold prompted a meeting last Tuesday of the bureau of the National Assembly’s Cultural Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over the issue.
The committee is scheduled to meet again next Tuesday to vote either to dismiss the petition or to organize a debate in the chamber, in line with Assembly rules.
CNews is part of the Canal+ group, controlled by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré. The channel is regularly accused of promoting far-right opinions and themes, a charge it disputes, saying it defends freedom of expression.
The French audiovisual regulator Arcom has sanctioned it several times.
Prosecutors allege that Kévin T., a 39-year-old Frenchman, deliberately fired on people of “Muslim, African or North African” appearance in Trappes and in the neighboring commune of La Verrière on October 23, according to national antiterrorism prosecutor Olivier Christen. Some on the left, including Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh, have accused certain media outlets, notably CNews, of bearing responsibility for the attack by giving too much airtime to rhetoric stigmatizing immigrants or their descendants.
