"If we were racist, we wouldn't have had groups in Africa," responds Cyrille Bolloré to criticism targeting CNews

There was Nadine Morano's "Chadian friend, so blacker than an Arab," as well as Marine Le Pen's "I came out on top in the overseas elections ." Here is now the Bolloré version: "If we were racist, we wouldn't have had groups in Africa," said Cyrille Bolloré, CEO of the family group, this Wednesday, May 21, in response to a question about criticism of the media of the empire founded by his father Vincent, in particular the CNews channel.

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The third son of the Breton magnate was questioned during the group's general meeting by a shareholder. The latter noted that "around [him], for three or four years, from all political sides, the Bolloré group has been associated through the media as something that spreads a little bit of discrimination. People talk to me about CNews. We should put people on the televised debates who can provide a fair contradiction, whatever the tone." The shareholder concluded, addressing the manager: "Do you want to correct things?"

The Canal group channel is one of the media outlets under the control of ultraconservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, and is accused of promoting far-right ideas . However, it has been condemned on multiple occasions for comments made on its channel, notably by Eric Zemmour and Jean-Claude Dassier , or for "failure to provide honest information" in 2024. By that date, CNews had received 13 warnings, 10 formal notices and 3 sanctions, making a total of 26 reminders to order from Arcom since 2016.

"What I like to point out, at least to answer your question about ethics in this group, and one of the personal reasons as a young man in his forties, very attached to his group, is the people who make it up. If we were racist, we wouldn't have had groups in Africa, groups everywhere, we got along with everyone," replied Cyrille Bolloré.

Referring to "the 235 people in the holding company," he added, "what's very comfortable is that we have connections from all sides, there are people who are very left-wing, people who are very right-wing, and we manage to discuss, we row in the same direction."

"The TV channel, whether you like it or not, I tell you, I don't watch it much, but what I observe is its audience figures, and I even see people in the other direction who say ' it's not the channel that makes people move to the right '" , commented Cyrille Bolloré.

The man who has been CEO of the group for five years also mentioned "a channel which has become the leading French news channel, there must be a certain concern among the population."

In April, CNews posted an average audience share of 3.3%, the best figure for a news channel and a new record. BFM, for its part, recorded only a 2.7% audience share.