Equity in Television Coverage - Part 1: The Regulation.

In this article from the newspaper Le Point, Marine Le Pen accuses the media of advantaging Emmanuel Macron's campaign in terms of coverage. She claims: "It is urgent that the media stops treating the presidential campaign unfairly, and sticks to the ethic rules and democratic principles. ("Il est urgent que le traitement médiatique de la campagne cesse d'être aussi peu conforme aux règles fondamentales de la déontologie et aux principes démocratiques. Ce sont des millions d'électeurs qui sont ainsi victimes de cette absence totale de neutralité"). Today, I want to take a look at what these rules are, and who controls them. 

The CSA (Superior Council of Audiovisual Content (Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel)) regulates the media in France since its creation in 1989 (similar to Ofcom in the UK).

The Superior Council of Audiovisual Content Logo

According to the regulations on the CSA website, there are three regulation stages that must be respected during these 2017 presidential elections (based on the freedom of communication law of September 1986). 

This is a visual explanation from their website:

First stage until 1st February 2017:  Equity for the speaking time and the time on air- The candidates and their supports are allowed a certain amount of time dependent on two factors: the weight that they represent (usually determined by how the party/candidate did at the last elections he participated in) and their campaign activity (meetings, participation in debates etc.)

Second stage from 20th/21st March: Same Equity principle - Publication of the official presidential candidates by the French Constitutional Council. The equity principle remains.

Third stage from the 10th April until the 7th May: Equality - The candidates are allocated an equal amount of time on air when the official presidential race has started (2001-213 article 15, 8th March 2001).

The CSA published a white paper on 10th September 2015, advising some changes to be made to the regulation of television after the 2012 (presidential) and 2014 (municipal) elections. One of the major differences applies to the second stage. Before 2017 elections, the speaking time was based on a equality principle instead of an equity one. The television channels, worried that they wouldn't be able to respect this equality, gave less time to all of the candidates, which led to a strong decrease in the overall speaking time for politicians.

Regulating politics on television is essential, but as we can see, it can also become detrimental if the rules interfere with the purpose of television, which is to inform the public by broadcasting the candidates' interventions in the fairest way possible.

Sources:
http://www.csa.fr/
http://www.csa.fr/Television/Le-suivi-des-programmes/Le-pluralisme-politique-et-les-campagnes-electorales/Le-pluralisme-en-periode-electorale
http://www.lepoint.fr/politique/medias-emmanuel-macron-est-enormement-avantage-denonce-le-pen-22-02-2017-2106771_20.php
http://www.csa.fr/Espace-Presse/Communiques-de-presse/Propositions-du-Conseil-superieur-de-l-audiovisuel-relatives-au-principe-de-pluralisme-politique-dans-les-medias-audiovisuels-en-periode-electorale