Paris (France) (AFP) – A petition on the National Assembly website calling to “remove CNews from French broadcasting” exceeded 500,000 signatures on Monday, paving the way for a possible debate on the subject in the hemicycle.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 1:27 p.m.

According to the rules of the Assembly, a debate in the hemicycle can be organized on a report relating to a petition signed by more than 500,000 people. For this, a commission must first make a decision by deciding to classify or examine it, then drawing up this report.

The organization of a debate beyond this threshold is therefore not systematic. A previous petition against the law on the presumption of legitimate use of weapons by the police had exceeded the mark of 500,000 signatures but was classified by the deputies members of the Laws Committee in July.

Launched in June, this petition demanding the closure of CNews saw the number of its signatories increase significantly at the end of October, when it stood at less than 100,000 digital signatures.

“We will not comment on this political petition,” responded CNews, requested by AFP.

The Canal+ group channel, owned by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, is regularly accused of promoting far-right opinions and themes, which it contests by claiming to defend freedom of expression.

“CNews is not a news channel. It is a propaganda machine,” is written in the introduction to the petition, launched by an individual.

These accusations took on more force after the racist attack in Trappes on October 23, in which a 39-year-old Frenchman, Kévin T., is suspected of having deliberately shot "people (...) of the Muslim or African or North African type", according to the national anti-terrorism prosecutor Olivier Christen.

Part of the left, like the mayor of Trappes, Ali Rabeh, accused the media, and in particular CNews, of having a responsibility in this attack, by giving too much space on their airwaves to speeches stigmatizing immigrants or people of immigrant background.

CNews was given notice last June by the audiovisual regulator (Arcom) to correct a “manifest and lasting imbalance in the expression of currents of thought and opinion” on its channel, in particular “on the threat that immigration and Islam represent for French society”.

The CNews teams, and more particularly the program "100% Frontières", a variation of the far-right newspaper of the same name, have regularly been the target of hostility from demonstrators in social and high school mobilizations in recent days, images that the channel rebroadcasts in its broadcasts.

The Paris headquarters of CNews and Europe 1 was also targeted by around a hundred people on October 17 at the start of a national day of action marked by violence and acts of "intimidation" denounced by the two media outlets under the leadership of Vincent Bolloré.

© 2026 AFP

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