Billionaire Le Pen-backer stripped of broadcasting licence over ‘fake news’

25 comments

1. ***The Telegraph reports:***

   [A French TV channel owned by one of Marine Le Pen’s supporters](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/07/11/vincent-bollore-le-pen-backer-prepares-london-listing/) has been stripped of its broadcasting licence after it was accused of promoting conspiracy theories and fake news.

   C8, which is owned by billionaire Vincent Bolloré, was omitted from a list of stations whose terrestrial licences are up for renewal by regulator Arcom.

   The Fox News-style channel, run by Bolloré’s Canal+, is best known for hosting Touche pas à mon poste*,* a news and entertainment show fronted by outspoken presenter Cyril Hanouna.

   The show attracts daily audiences of up to 2m but has been accused of promoting far-Right views.

   C8 has faced fines of almost €8m (£6.7m) for various breaches of France’s broadcasting code, including airing conspiracy theories and misinformation.

   Last year it was handed a record €3.5m penalty after Mr Hanouna branded a guest an “idiot”, “fool” and “piece of s—” for criticising Mr Bolloré.

   **Read more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/07/24/billionaire-le-pen-backer-stripped-of-broadcasting-licence/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/07/24/billionaire-le-pen-backer-stripped-of-broadcasting-licence/)

2. Way to go France!

3. Vincent Bolloré is a living piece of garbage. 

4. Nothing if only they would do this to Rupert Murdoch.

5. Excellent

6. THAT is how you do it! Don’t tolerate this BS. It’s a blatant threat to the populace.

7. Say what you will about France,(THERE IS SO MUCH TO SAY)but you have to give them their croissant when things like this happen.  

8. One day the right will be in power and then they will use the same laws to censor the left. State censorship has no place in any civilization that wants to call itself “free”

9. its beginning to border on Putin level suppression of opposition

10. Based France. Almost like they cherish their liberty

11. I wish we could do this in America.

12. Nicely done. And , keep in mind that this decision is based on all the breach, illegality from the channel.

13. Good

14. That’s… wow!

15. Why can’t we do this in the US?

16. Excellent news, but they’ll find a way, they always do. They will either stream the same bullshit shows through internet tv or on Bolloré’s other channel “CNews”.

17. Stop speading fake news, first start to understand what happend before telling lies.

18. They can broadcast into deep space. They don’t have terrestrial licenses only!

19. Meanwhile in the UK Labour says they most likely won’t push for Leveson 2, and OFCOM gives a toothless response regarding GB News.

20. Yes, please. Let’s do that here in the US.

21. Well sadly it’s just a little blow, “cnews” which is their continuous news channel still has it’s license and it’s as bad as c8 if not worse since it’s shitty news reporting and commenting 24/7

    Also this is only the license for over-the-air broadcasting. They can still broadcast online and through cable

22. That’s not completly true, Just one Channel Lost the broadcasting licence, Bolloré still has 6 of the 12 broadcasting licence and One of It is Cnews, the biggest Propaganda Channel. It’s like fox news but french.

23. As in any country, right-wing populists aren’t shy about feeding people fake news. It’s good that at least France is trying to keep an eye on it.

24. Yes! Shut the bs down!

25. Thing is, yes C8 lost its frequency, but C8’s owner, Vincent Bolloré still owns the Canal + group, of which Cnews still has a frequency. Cnews is a continuous news TV channel, very far right oriented, which heavily favored Le Pen and Zemmour during the elections (Zemmour even had a daily show there before creating his party). So not all is won. Bolloré openly said to be in a “civilization struggle” for a white and christian France, perhaps we could ask the questiln of stripping him of all his medias.