The first period of the election campaign, from January 1 to March 7, caused many increases to the rules of speaking times and candidate antenna times.
In the democratic game as in the field, we can not claim that the match is folded at the end of the first period, but we can raise the scores. And those that the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (ARCOM) arrested on 10 March for the first time of the presidential campaign, which ran from the 1 in January 7th to March 7th , are not glorious.
A publication on the site of the EX-CSA, Thursday, March 31 – twenty-one days after the decision! -, reports a warning addressed to RTL. Verification made, these are four antennas – RTL, but also Europe 1, BFM-TV and RMC Discovery – which have been warned of a warning of the ARCOM to have not respected the rules of equity between the candidates, declared or presumed. For example, during the period, there was too much Eric Zemmour and Yannick Jadot on RTL, but not enough Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Anne Hidalgo. For its part, Europe 1 neglected to talk about Nathalie Arthaud and Philippe Poutou, while it “under-represented” Jean-Luc Mélenchon and insured “overrepresented” in Valérie Pécresse. In case of recurrence, it is a formal notice that awaits the faulty – a procedure that can lead to a sanction, never pronounced in the framework of speaking times.
A concept that leaves puzzled
“Speaking time” and “antenna time” that audiovisual media are supposed to grant candidates depend on their “representativeness”. Evaluated according to the results obtained during preceding polls, surveys but also of the surface occupied by the political parties or groups on which candidates can rely on, this notion has enough to plunge any scientist into abysses of perplexity … it is on this basis that the ARCOM sent to six antennas (RMC Story, BFM-Business, CNEWS, France Culture, France 5 and the TV chain FranceInfo) “Farm letters”, that is to -Dire letters mentioning red line crossings already reported (without effect, therefore) by “simple observations”. Twelve media were also entitled to these “observations”: RMC, C8, South Radio, FranceInfo, France Inter, M6, Classical Radio, TF1, TMC, LCI, France 2 and France 3.
We dare to imagine the upcoming balance sheet of the second period of the campaign, which ran from March 8 to 27: the principle of “reinforced fairness” which applied then – we are today in period “Equality” – imposed its respect by time slots. “We’ll have too much jadot in the morning, but not enough pecresse during the day”, we already plan in a radio. By presidential ballot, denial puzzle.