A petition to take one of France's most-watched news channels off the air has gathered over 1 million signatures. According to the signatories, CNews is a mouthpiece for radical and far-right politicians. Opinion makers have regularly expressed racist views there.
CNews is "not a news channel, but a propaganda machine," the petition states. "We have seen in the US what can happen when an influential news channel promotes a clear political agenda for years," a reference to the American Fox News and the rise of President Trump.
Islamophobic
This afternoon at 1:00 PM, the competent committee of the French parliament will consider the matter. It will decide whether the petition warrants a debate in parliament.
Although the petition was launched in early June, it gained momentum at the end of October. According to French media, the trigger was the terrorist attack in Trappes, in which a French-Congolese man was killed. The perpetrator had racist and islamophobic motives.
Even if the petition ultimately does not make it onto the political agenda, it is considered an important signal.
According to critics, CNews increasingly follows the ideological course of radical-right parties such as Éric Zemmour's Reconquête and Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National (RN). Because of this, the channel is described as the French equivalent of Fox News.
The commercial 24-hour channel would benefit if Le Pen wins the French presidential elections next spring and fulfills her promise to further privatize the public broadcaster. This is a measure that CNews has long spoken positively about.
Devout Catholic
But there is also an ideological motive. Behind the successful CNews stands Breton billionaire and media magnate Vincent Bolloré. The right-wing conservative and devout Catholic entrepreneur is among the ten richest Frenchmen and maintains close contacts with radical-right politicians such as Le Pen and Zemmour.
Through his media conglomerate, Bolloré has further expanded his influence on the French media landscape in recent years. For example, he owns the influential weekly Le Journal du Dimanche and StudioCanal, one of the largest film production companies in Europe.
He is also a major shareholder in companies and publishers through various groups and has interests in the French commercial radio station Europe1.
CNews was revived in 2017 and has since been repeatedly summoned by the French media watchdog Arcom. Since the beginning of this year, Arcom has imposed a total of 300,000 euros in fines on the channel. According to the petition initiators, the channel has been reprimanded nearly 30 times since 2019.
The most recent fine was imposed after statements by journalist Erik Tegnér. He is founder of the radical-right medium Frontières and is regularly invited by CNews. After the riots around the Champions League final in Paris last year, he described the violence as a "civilization problem" and attributed it to immigration.
This is an example of the many statements that opponents say sow hatred. CNews rejects these accusations and says it defends freedom of expression.
Earlier this year, Bally Bagayoko, the new mayor of Seine-Saint-Denis for the far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI), was compared to an ape by a guest during a live broadcast on CNews. The French public prosecutor's office has launched an investigation. CNews says the statement was taken out of context.
Deportation order
Another controversy around CNews concerned Russian media personality Xenia Fedorova. Before regularly appearing on CNews in 2025, she was director of the French branch of the Russian state and propaganda channel Russia Today (RT). That channel was banned in the EU after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
At CNews, she grew as a regular guest into an outspoken defender of Kremlin positions and regularly criticized Western support for Ukraine.
Last July, the French Ministry of the Interior issued a deportation order against her for spreading Kremlin propaganda and disinformation. According to the authorities, she poses a threat to public order and French interests. She is under house arrest.
Canal+, the media group of which CNews is part and in which Bolloré is a major shareholder, called her deportation an attack on freedom of expression.
In France, there are also voices to keep CNews. Several parliamentary petitions state that the channel contributes to the plurality of the French media landscape.
"The channel is watched by millions of viewers and offers debates and analyses that enrich the range of available news coverage," one of the petitions states.