Abortion is “something terrible” where “two freedoms” “collide”: “The freedom of people to self-determine and the freedom of children to live,” said businessman Vincent Bolloré, which controls Vivendi, parent company of the Canal group, to which the C8 and CNews channels notably belong, Wednesday March 13, in front of deputies, in his own name.
The latter was questioned on this subject during his hearing by the National Assembly’s commission of inquiry into the allocation of digital terrestrial television (TNT) frequencies, two weeks after an intense controversy over the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (abortion) caused by a sequence broadcast on CNews. In the February 25 show “En quest d’esprit” – the channel’s Sunday program, broadcast in partnership with the weekly France catholique – CNews broadcast an infographic equating abortion with the greatest “cause of mortality”. around the world, causing an outcry. Which forced him to “apologize” the next day.
But Vincent Bolloré affirmed Wednesday, under oath, that despite his claimed and displayed Catholic “convictions”, not to intervene on the content of the channels which belong to his group, and denied wanting to promote “an ideology” of the extreme right, this of which he is regularly accused. “It’s all custard pies,” he said, before adding: “I have no ideological project, I’m all gentle and good-natured, not at all an Attila. »
Forty reminders to Arcom for C8 and CNews
“I have convictions (…) but the Canal group’s content has only one objective, to serve its subscribers or viewers,” Mr. Bolloré further declared. The industrialist is at the head of a media empire which includes the Canal Group channels (C8, Canal, CNews), the publisher Hachette, radio stations (including Europe 1), newspapers and magazines (including Paris Match, in has been bought by Bernard Arnault, Le Journal du Dimanche, etc.) or even the Havas group, a global communications giant.
The CNews channel, whose best-known headliners are the presenters Pascal Praud, Laurence Ferrari and Sonia Mabrouk, is boycotted by left-wing personalities, who accuse it of promoting far-right opinions, which the channel disputes. The Canal group also includes the C8 channel, whose star is the controversial host Cyril Hanouna, accustomed to controversies, and calls to order from the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom). According to a count from Le Monde, CNews and C8 between them have 40 calls to order from Arcom, half of which have been issued over the last three years.
But, for the billionaire, CNews is “a success” because it “tells the truth, receives everyone, well in any case everyone who wants to go there, and it is today a space of freedom”. “Is there ideology in there or in Cyril Hanouna? I’m not sure, I believe there is a freedom, a joy,” Mr. Bolloré said again.
On the subject of abortion, Mr. Bolloré testified, during his hearing, to a more personal episode. “Quite a few years ago, the woman I was with found out she was pregnant while taking medication that she shouldn’t take,” he said, before add, without further details: “I already had four children, I was weak, I didn’t pay attention, I let it happen: I can tell you that there is not a day when I don’t think about this life that I helped to destroy. »
