He had called Bardella directly… Arcom sanctions Hanouna, “deliberate matchmaker” of the far-right before the Legislative

Arcom, the audiovisual regulator, once again sanctioned Cyril Hanouna and his show “TPMP” for a sequence that occurred on June 13, 2024.

While the European elections (June 9) had just led to a dissolution of the National Assembly, France was preparing for legislative elections for which the far right seemed more than ever at the gates of power.

A fortnight before the first round of the legislative elections, Cyril Hanouna received Sarah Knafo, member of the executive board of Reconquête!, on his set. The occasion for a mind-blowing sequence during which the host proposed to the far-right leader to put her directly in touch with Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, in order to propose an alliance of all the tendencies of the far-right in view of the next electoral deadline.

In this June 13 show, Sarah Knafo leaves a message on Jordan Bardella's answering machine thanks to the call made by Cyril Hanouna on his phone.

The second level of Arcom sanctions

Arcom had been contacted by viewers about this sequence from the show Touche pas à mon poste!. In a notice published this October 31, 2024, the audiovisual regulator considered, “that by deliberately acting as a go-between to promote direct negotiation between two political parties and by making inappropriate comments about the candidacy of Mr. François Hollande, in the context of an electoral campaign brief requiring editors to pay particular attention to the application of the principle of pluralism, the presenter disregarded the requirements of honesty and moderation inherent in the treatment of electoral news.

For Arcom, the broadcast characterizes “a failure by the channel to comply with the provisions of article 2 of the deliberation of January 4, 2011 relating to the principle of political pluralism in radio and television services during the electoral period”.

Arcom therefore sanctioned the publisher of the program “with a warning against the renewal of such a breach”.

Of course, this sanction is unlikely to move Cyril Hanouna, accustomed to much heavier sanctions, especially financially. But the warning is the second level of sanction from Arcom after the “simple warning” and before the “formal notice” and the “financial penalty”.

In July 2024, Arcom took the decision not to renew the authorization to broadcast C8 and NRJ12 on TNT, in particular following its numerous warnings, formal notices and fines for breaches of its obligations. in recent years.

Cyril Hanouna is also the record holder for financial sanctions, notably with that of 3.5 million euros after the insults to the LFI deputy, Louis Boyard, in November 2022.