The audiovisual regulator, Arcom, sanctioned CNews to the tune of 200,000 euros for two sequences in 2025 likely to “incite hatred”, according to a decision made public this Wednesday. Requested by AFP, the channel owned by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré indicated that it was “appealing to the Council of State”.
In these sequences, which date back to June and September 2025, comments by Erik Tegnér, founder of the identity media Frontières and main columnist of the show “100% Frontières” on CNews, are highlighted. In the first, the violence following PSG’s victory in the Champions League final was discussed. Arcom underlines that Erik Tegnér reported a “deterioration of the security situation throughout the country, attributed to people of immigrant background” and spoke of a “message” of intimidation sent, according to him, to the French population by the perpetrators of the violence.
“Civilizational problem”
A video of the president of the Reconquest party, Éric Zemmour, from social networks, was also broadcast without sufficient contradiction, judges Arcom. The authority notes that Erik Tegnér also supported “the use of the term ‘barbarians’ on the grounds that the violence committed is part of a ‘civilizational’ ‘problem’.”
The second pinned sequence was devoted to the comments of an elected official dressed in a veil during a meeting of the municipal council of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, in Belgium. The speakers on the CNews set “presented the outfit and behavior of the elected official” as “symptomatic of a “great replacement” also at work in France”, and Erik Tegnér affirmed that “Islam remains a religion of conquest”, underlines Arcom.
The independent body considers that these two sequences are “likely to arouse feelings of fear and rejection” and to “incite hatred and encourage discriminatory behavior”. Arcom imposed this financial sanction on the channel due to “the nature and extent of the breaches” of CNews, and previous sanctions of the channel for the same reasons.
