Should the speaking time of journalists and editorial writers on radio and television stations be counted? “I cry daredevil and danger,” said Roch-Olivier Maistre, president of Arcom, the media regulator, on Sunday on France 5. “The editorialists are journalists, they have press cards. Until further notice, I don’t know of any administrative authority in a democracy that is beginning to control journalists,” said Arcom’s number one on the set of the “Cmedia” program. “It comes under the editorial freedom of a channel,” recalled the senior official.
Roch-Olivier Maistre was questioned about respect for political pluralism by the CNews channel, some of whose editorial writers are known for their right-wing positioning, like Éric Zemmour, a former polemicist for the channel who became leader of the party of extreme right Reconquest!. “This rule”, within the meaning of the 1986 law relating to the freedom of communication, “is respected” by CNews, indicated Roch-Olivier Maistre. “That, really, I warn, I have said this many times in Parliament – the legislator will do what he wants, of course – but to start wanting to count journalists and editorialists, I shout daredevil and danger,” he added.
The president of the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom) then considered that certain referrals filed by listeners or viewers reflected “a form of intolerance” ambient. And the latter gives as examples referrals to a caustic song by a humorist from France Inter making fun of Jesus Christ or an episode of the soap opera “Plus belle la vie” in which actresses evoked their wish to resort to gestation to other (GPA).
“It’s not massive like gripes. But now, you don’t like an editorialist, you don’t like a humorist, you don’t like a soap opera, we seize Arcom and Arcom must immediately cut off heads. No, that’s not how it works,” he said. The role of the regulator is also “to take a step back, distance”, he developed. In terms of humor as creation, “the regulator, of course, has an extremely high position of tolerance and not at all a censor”, defended Roch-Olivier Maistre.
