CNews “regrets” and apologizes after calling abortion the leading cause of death in the world

Laurence Ferrari a présenté les excuses de CNews ce lundi 26 février. Capture d'écran X

The continuous news channel created controversy after the broadcast on Sunday February 25 of a program in which abortion, with supporting visuals and figures, was presented as the leading cause of death in the world. An anti-abortion propaganda speech a few days before the Senate examination of the inclusion of voluntary termination of pregnancy in the Constitution.

CNews makes its mea culpa. The continuous news channel, through the voice of Laurence Ferrari, announces this Monday, February 26, that it regrets “the broadcast of the infographic entitled ‘The causes of mortality worldwide’ in the show ‘In search of spirit’ broadcast” the day before. CNews “apologies to anyone this infographic may have offended”.

The show 'In search of spirit", which intends to decipher spiritual and religious news, presented by Aymeric Pourbaix every Sunday, had the theme this Sunday "Abortion and the right to abortion". The journalist has clarified several times that during this broadcast, "we will leave aside the political and partisan debate". Before qualifying – supporting visuals and figures – abortion as the leading cause of death in the world.

"In a personal capacity"

An anti-abortion propaganda speech a few days before the Senate examination of the inclusion of voluntary termination of pregnancy in the Constitution which did not take long to do react on social networks.

Laurence Ferrari added that at "personally" she found "very important that this right" be enshrined in the Constitution.

Laurence Ferrari a pris la parole. CNEWS regrette la diffusion de l’infographie intitulée «Les causes de la mortalité dans le monde» dans l’émission «En quête d’esprit» diffusée le 25 février et présente ses excuses à toutes les personnes que cette infographie aurait pu heurter pic.twitter.com/E9MupEEkzt

— CNEWS (@CNEWS) February 26, 2024

On February 13, the Council of State asked the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom) to once again monitor respect for pluralism and ;#39;independence of information by CNews, after an appeal from Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The highest administrative court found that "the information provided by the service (CNews) does not comply with the obligation independence from the main shareholder of its parent company, both politically and economically, as evidenced by various testimonies and studies".

For the first time, the Council of State considered that respect for pluralism for an information channel must also take into account political color "all participants in broadcast programs, including columnists, hosts and guests".