CNews, regularly accused of promoting far-right views, became France’s number one news channel for the first time last month, figures published on Monday showed.
Often described as France’s answer to Fox News due to its opinionated and divisive presenters, CNews reflects a shift to the right in French politics, often expressing positions against immigration, Islamism and “woke” leftists.
It denies that it has any political bias.
“We are a mirror of society. Our progress has been constant and has been accelerating for several months,” Serge Nedjar, general manager of CNews, told AFP.
It took 2.8 percent of the viewership share last month, ahead of longtime leader BFMTV with 2.7 percent, according to data collected by Mediametrics.
The shift comes at a time when polls suggest the far right is on its way to victory in this month’s European elections in France.
But it has been a vital platform for far-right figures such as presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, who has been convicted several times of racist hate speech, including for comments on CNews talk shows.
The channel insists it strictly adheres to rules that ensure each party gets an equal share of airtime ahead of the elections.
Launched in 2017, it is part of a media group owned by conservative billionaire Vincent Bollore.
In a rare public appearance before lawmakers in March, he denied imposing any “ideology” on the stations, saying his stations’ only interest was “telling the truth.”
But CNews and sister channel C8 are still regularly confronted with sanctions from regulators.
Last month, the country was fined 50,000 euros for comments by one of its journalists, who attributed anti-Semitism and prison overcrowding to “Arab-Muslim immigration.”
The organization was fined in February after one of its programs described abortion as “the world’s leading cause of death”.
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