Speeches rebroadcast at 3 am and interviews that loop in the dark night: several presidential candidates complain about the practices of news channels they accuse of "playing" with the rules to respect the times of word.

“Between 1 am and 4 am, one evening last week, the deputy Alexis Corbière passed nine times on LCI, in loop.

Nine times !

Exclaims his rebellious counterpart Michel Larive.

"And Jean-Luc Mélenchon's speech at the Popular Convention in Reims was broadcast twice this week in the middle of the night on CNews," he continues.

France Insoumise is not the only formation to worry about interventions of their candidate in “night diffusion” to “circumvent the rule of political pluralism”.

Recalling that the phenomenon is not new, François Asselineau, candidate of the pro-Frexit UPR party, remembers that in 2017, he spent “a few times in a loop on BFMTV, at a time when no one was watching television ".

At the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA), which ensures the speaking time in the media, it is specified that it is "not prohibited to carry out nocturnal broadcasts".

Not illegal

But "if we are led to note, in particular for permanent news channels, that there are a lot of nocturnal broadcasts, the CSA will have to intervene", promised its president Roch-Olivier Maistre during a conference of press Thursday. Outside the election period, the rule is to give the floor one third of the time to the executive, the remaining two thirds being allocated to political parties (including those resulting from the presidential majority), according to their representativeness (electoral results, polls, etc.) .

And neither the broadcast schedule, nor the editorial commentary time is taken into account. For Florian Philippot, candidate of the Patriots in 2022, the news channels are therefore not illegal, but "they clearly play with the current rules". LCI ensures: "We could get slapped on the fingers in the past for nightly reruns, but now it's completely marginal, really". At the end of 2020, the channel was accused of broadcasting interventions by Yannick Jadot at late hours. Also contacted, BFMTV and CNews declined to comment.

After January 1, 2022, stricter rules will apply in the run-up to the presidential election with in particular, in the home stretch, an obligation of "comparable programming conditions", where each candidate and his supporters must have access to the four stages schedules (morning, day, evening, night) in an equitable manner.

But that doesn't satisfy everyone.

François Asselineau pleads for the establishment of a minimum and maximum time, per candidate, "by balancing the media passages by the audience".

And this, "by bringing forward the submission of sponsorships, in November or December, to have at least four months during which the media would be forced to invite all the candidates".

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