CNews, France’s equivalent to Fox News, is under formal investigation for possible hate speech following allegedly racist comments targeting the newly elected Black mayor of Saint-Denis, Bally Bagayoko.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said on Friday that it has opened a formal probe into the controversial French news channel following the complaint filed by Bagayoko on Wednesday. A member of the far-left party France Insoumise, Bagayoko is the first Black mayor of Saint-Denis.
In his complaint, the 52-year-old elected official alleged that comments made by panelists on CNews on March 27 and 28 constituted racist slurs. The prosecutor’s office also separately opened an investigation into possible cyberbullying targeting Bagayoko due to his skin color. The prosecutor’s office said in a statement sent to Variety that it had “observed an increase in comments on social media platform X targeting the victim because of the color of their skin, following that same broadcast.”
CNews, meanwhile, told AFP the controversy was “baseless” and denied that any racist comments were made.
The controversy erupted on the night of Bagayoko’s victory, when he told a television presenter that Saint-Denis was “the city of kings – and of the living people.” His comments quickly sparked debate on CNews. The CNews host asked whether Bagayoko was “trying to push the limits,” prompting psychologist Jean Doridot to invoke imagery of apes and tribal chiefs. “Now, it’s important to remember that as Homo sapiens, we are social mammals and belong to the great ape family. And consequently, in every community, in every tribe – our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived in tribes – there is a leader whose role is to establish their authority,” Doridot said.
The following day, philosopher Michel Onfray targeted Bagayoko’s use of the word “allegiance.” “We’re not in a primitive tribe, as Darwin described it, in which there is a dominant male who decides everything,” Onfray said.
CNews – which is the “most frequently sanctioned channel in the country,” according to the French newspaper Le Monde — is part of Canal+ Group which is owned by French industrialist billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
Under French law, “public insults aggravated by racist motives are punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of €45,000,” while “cyberbullying is a crime punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of €30,000 (up to four years with aggravating circumstances),” the Paris prosecutor’s office stated.
variety.com
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