How CNews bypasses France’s media pluralism rules
Reporters without borders
, November 2025
Role: lead investigator, producer, developer
Coauthor: A. Froger
With the help of: H. Mzalouat, A. Delefortrie, V. Loriquet
Story Editor: A. Bocandé
How CNews bypasses France’s media pluralism rules
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) meticulously examined the content broadcast on France’s four news channels in March 2025, to see how they fare against the new criteria for “pluralism” — recent rules on how media should show diverse ideas and viewpoints.
To find out, we developed a tool that took screenshots of France’s four 24-hour news channels (BFMTV, CNews, France Info, LCI), every ten seconds. As a result, in March 2025, more than a million indiscriminate screenshots were taken, and nearly 700,000 chyrons were analysed.
The results of this investigation are clear: while imbalances exist here and there, CNews is the only channel that blatantly and systematically strays from the broadcasting rules in force since July 2024.
The most striking finding: during overnight slots, left-wing voices dominated CNews. By contrast, in prime time, the right and far right took the majority.
Controversy
Following our revelations, the French regulator leaked to the press — without providing any figures — that it had found no issue with CNews that month. A controversy ensued, which went as far as to disrupt a broadcast of France 2‘s investigative program Complément d’enquête, on the same subject. (See in particular the articles in Le Monde and Les Jours).
RSF stood by its findings. Our results were subsequently verified by Mediapart, and by Libération, which assigned a dozen journalists to review every program broadcast in March 2025. (See below.)
* Note: slight differences with our figures — for the right and the far right — stem from how certain individuals were labelled (notably G. Fenech, whom RSF did not count as a political figure).
Referral to France’s media regulator
🚨 June 15, 2026 : After a formal referral by Reporters Without Borders based on this investigation, the French media regulator issued an unprecedented formal notice to CNews for clear breaches and a “structural imbalance” in its handling of pluralism. (Read RSF’s press release.)
🚨 July 9, 2026 : Eight months after the controversy, the French media regulator finally announced that political speaking time broadcast between midnight and 6 a.m. will no longer be counted, as of October 1, 2026. (Read Arcom’s press release).