Canal +

In June 2014 a general assembly was organized at Vivendi, the world’s second-largest entertainment group. Billionaire Vincent Bolloré (see below) is chairman of the supervisory board. His group Bolloré SA is the major shareholder of the European king of entertainment, owning 14.4 percent of its capital.

It so happens that Vivendi is also the majority holder of Canal + (51 percent), which makes Vincent Bolloré the man of power on the rather cryptic channel.

First pay-TV channel in France, Canal+ appeared in 1984. Basically it was supposed to be a sports and cinema channel. Nowadays the competition in these sectors is tough and the channel is counting on its news, reports and political programs. Reluctant to communicate the number of its subscribers, the group has been experiencing an exceptional fall for several years. For a long time the channel was appreciated for its particular atmosphere, ‘channel spirit’, full of fun and subversion, but nowadays it is more and more seen as a channel oriented to Parisian public, bourgeois and ‘right-thinking’.

The channel is owned by billionaire and Nicolas Sarkozy’s friend Vincent Bolloré, and has recently experienced a difficult period because of some of its new boss’ decisions. Censorship and dismissal are at the center of the little universe of the encrypted channel.

A known captain of industry, ninth place of the richest French ranking, he is the boss of Vivendi group, the owner of Canal+. But the gathering of control over the pay-TV-channel was not a very peaceful operation: Bolloré got rid of an important number of co-workers and put his men in their places.

Even worse are the decisions of the new boss, concerning the program planning, which some describe as censorship. The famous program Les guignols de l’info — the News Puppets — became a victim of that policy. Previously aired for free, it became encrypted and was scheduled for a later time. So this show which mocks the authorities will no more have the same exposure. Moreover, "disturbing" reports were removed, including an investigation searching for links between le Crédit Mutuel bank and tax fraud. A strong relationship between Bolloré and the bank could be the reason behind the decision. The businessman is equally very close to Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2007, shortly after Sarkozy had won the presidential elections, Bolloré put his private jet and his yacht at Sarkozy’s disposal. This case seriously damaged the leader’s popularity.

Yann Barthès is certainly a presenter who portrays the encrypted channel better than anyone else. He began his career within Canal+ as an apprentice in 1998 and has been climbing the career ladder rung by rung. In charge of le Petit Journal, a reputable news show, the showman is constantly being accused of representing ‘bobo’ [bohemian bourgeoisie] right-thinking in all its splendour.

His program is clearly left-wing-oriented and has made gay marriage opponents and le Front National its favorite targets.

But he does also focus on critics towards le Front Gauche of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has expressed his disregard for the presenter and his show on several occasions. Barthès is close to controversial philosopher, Bernard-Henri Lévy.

Besides this, the former minister, Luc Chatel, has criticized the goodwill of the Canal+ star: "He looks like a trendy rebel, but he is perfectly conformist. It is clear through his interviews, which are very often complaisant. The one with Bernard-Henri Lévy during a release of his documentary, Le Serment de Tobrouk, was a perfect model of its kind."

In 2013, the presenter was involved in a scandal. A photo of him showing the quenelle gesture, popularized by the humourist Dieudonné, was leaked. The image provoked the anger of some Jewish press outlets. Barthès tried to justify himself by arguing that he hadn’t known the meaning of the gesture. The excuse was accepted by the League against Racism and Anti-Semitism. The quenelle is considered by some as an anti-Semitic gesture, and as a rebel one by others.

In December 2013, during the debate on Dieudonné, Canal+ broadcast the second edition of le Grand Débarquement, a series of sketches performed by selected guest stars. One of them was trying to imitate the show of Frédéric Lopez, Rendez-vous en terre Inconnue (a program showing a celebrity discovering a foreign culture). A problem: the sketch dealt with the genocide acts in Rwanda, which left hundreds of thousands of people dead in 1994. "Mother’s upstairs, being reduced to pieces, Dad’s downstairs, with an arm missing," ran one part of the skit.

The broadcast led to a wave of indignation. There was even a petition on Change.org website asking the encrypted channel to apologize. Scholastic writer Mukasonga wrote an opinion piece for Libération magazine pointing at the choice of subject. An additional problem: the debate on Dieudonné accused of producing anti-Semitic shows being in progress, some have seen signs of double standards. Canal+ has been adopting rather a severe approach concerning the case of a French-Cameroonian humorist, yet authorized a genocide-related humoristic sketch.

In 2013, L’Effet Papillon, a Canal+ show, got caught in the act of falsification.


The program discussed feminism in Tunisia. While the picture is showing women crying out some slogans, the translation is far from being accurate. The subtitle says: "Tunisian Nation is a free Nation! No Islamists, no Qatar!" But in fact the real meaning of these claiming cries is the following: "Tunisian Nation is a free Nation! No America, no Qatar!" The word "America" is quite different from "ikhwan", which generally means "Islamists". So is it really fake or just an error? The fact remains, however, that the channel did not react and that the video was deleted some time afterwards.