Two days before the municipal elections, the Greens have done their calculations. And regarding the speaking time of their Parisian candidate David Belliard in the media, the account is not there, they assure. In a letter addressed to the Superior council of audio-visual, they thus sound the alarm bell.
According to the Paris office of EELV, between February 3 and February 28, the speaking times published by the CSA would demonstrate "a very great under-representation of the lists led by David Belliard in numerous media, in particular the chains of 'continuous information and that of the public service' , indicates the letter, posted on Twitter.
For example, the ecological list would have benefited from 16 minutes on BFMTV while at the same time, that of La République en Marche, embodied by Agnès Buzyn, occupied 6:40 am on the air. Same observation with regard to LCI. LREM would total 7 hours of exposure, compared to just over 18 minutes for David Belliard. On Europe 1, Rachida Dati (LR), Cédric Villani and Agnès Buzyn would exceed 40 minutes of speaking time, where the environmental candidate peaks at 2 minutes and 50 seconds. Public service side, the figure goes to 11 seconds for David Belliard on France 2, against 4 to 11 minutes for the other candidates, and to 12 seconds for France 3 against 4 minutes and 49 seconds for Agnès Buzyn.
A situation deemed "inadmissible" by the Greens, which torpedoed the CSA. "In light of these figures, it appears that you are not fulfilling your role as guarantor of respect for political pluralism" , vilify the co-secretaries of the Parisian section of EELV, Pandora Reggiani and Guillaume Durand. The regulator is even accused of letting "truncate democracy in an election which is nevertheless of major importance for the life of our capital" .
Faced with attacks, the CSA, responsible for ensuring the proper application of a "presentation and fair access to the antenna" between the candidates, pluralism requires, keeps its phlegm. “We talk daily with radio and television stations which must apply this principle of fair speaking time, determined according to several criteria, in particular that of the results of the previous elections. When there is an imbalance, they are warned quickly, ” says the regulator. In Paris, an overrepresentation of LREM was indeed detected. Broadcasters have been notified. Since then, "an effort has been made to rebalance the situation," observes the gendarme. In addition, the period during which the principle of equity applies has not ended. "Until the end, the broadcasters, who are well versed in the exercise, operate rebalancing" , recalls the gendarme of the audiovisual sector, which moreover does not have the power to sanction a media before the total stop counters ... "It is above all a good coup de com ', decrypts an audiovisual observer. In every election, there are always candidates to take offense. It's part of the media game . ”