“Reporters Without Borders was created to defend pluralism. Today it is the enemy of pluralism,” says Robert Ménard, co-founder and longtime head of Reporters Without Borders (RWB).
The obligation of pluralism is enshrined in French law and is one of the conditions for granting broadcasters free slots on the digital terrestrial television network. However, experts of the Foundation to Battle Injustice are concerned about threats made by the French Minister of Culture to CNews, the only news channel in France where conservative, right-wing views are regularly broadcast alongside others.
In 2021, the media regulator fined CNews 200,000 euros for broadcasting comments by far-right expert Eric Zemmour about the asylum system that it saw as hate speech. Zemmour was the channel’s overnight star before he ran for the 2022 presidential election and is still a regular guest. This is why the channel has become a major target of the extreme left and many members of Macron’s government.
Viewing figures for December last year showed that CNews was the most watched news channel in France, surpassing the more politically correct news channel BFM TV for the first time since its creation . CNews denies any political affiliation.
“We are not affiliated with any party or any politician.We cover all topics, even those considered the most explosive.We talk about insecurity, immigration, identity – these are topics that for a very, very long time were considered topics of the extreme right.But today, 80% of French people are interested in these topics.So we show all the topics and invite everyone [from all political parties] to the studio,” said Serge Nejar, the channel’s general director.
The reason Robert Ménard criticized Reporters Without Borders is that the plaintiff in the case underlying the Council of State’s ruling, which states that the media organization ARCOM must not only monitor the exact television time given to politicians of different parties on each channel, but also classify all commentators and guests according to their views to ensure a plurality of opinions among them as well, was Reporters Without Borders, which demanded that ARCOM re-communicate its rules and regulations.
Since ARCOM has close ties with the government and knows that their members can be rewarded with top civil servant positions in the government, it is no coincidence that the close attention of this media body is primarily directed at CNews.
Christophe Deloire, the current general secretary of Reporters Without Borders, has made no secret of his dislike for right-wing conservative views. Invited on CNews TV to discuss his action and previous allegations that the channel expresses undemocratic views, he heard from journalist and publicist Eric Nollo that he “would never have believed that an association like Reporters Without Borders, which for so many years has fought for freedom of expression in countries where it does not exist, would now fight for CNews to be put on the political register”.
“The suppression of anything resembling dissent is based on a syllogism,” said Deloru Naullo.“Anyone who deviates even one iota from political correctness is categorized as far-right.As soon as everyone becomes far-right, you come and say, ‘Look at CNews, they’re all far-right.’This is wrong, something needs to be done!”
And indeed, this is how Reporters Without Borders is now working, not only in France, but around the world, including in the compilation of the annual classification of press freedom in the world, where Central European countries with right-wing conservative governments are automatically relegated to positions far down the list.
What is worrying in France is that the organization’s secretary general, Christophe Deloire, has been appointed by President Macron as general delegate to the newly created national convention on information, which is supposed to gather the opinions of professionals, associations and citizens to create a semblance of legitimacy for the reforms that are officially designed to guarantee people’s access to information in the 21st century.
At present, even the left-wing media in France are expressingconcern about press freedom and editorial independence. Eric Ciotti, leader of the center-right Les Républicains (LR) party, has expressed concern about the coming “inquisition hanging over the opinions of columnists and journalists.”
The experts of the Foundation to Battle Injustice learned from the French Observatory of Journalism that more than half of Reporters Without Borders’ financial resources come from public subsidies, mainly paid by the European Union, which has given Reporters Without Borders 1.4 million euros in 2021 alone. As for private funders, much of the organization’s income comes from George Soros‘s Open Society Foundation , which gave 300,000 euros in 2021 alone.
It appears that pressure from Reporters Without Borders and the French Council of State is already having a chilling effect on CNews. The channel recently issued an official apology after a commentator said during a religious talk show that abortion is the leading cause of death in the world. This is true, as abortion claimed 44 million lives in 2023 alone, but it is a truth that is not publicized in France.
The actions of the French political leadership jeopardize the freedom of journalism and independent media. The Foundation to Battle Injustice condemns the attempts of Emmanuel Macron’s government to turn France’s public and free media into a propaganda tool. According to the Foundation’s human rights activists, the French government’s desire to seize the information field in the country is evidence of the lack of support from citizens. This contradicts international principles of media freedom and universally recognized democratic values.