Conseil d’État rejects claims of partiality in CSA pubcaster chief choice

Olivier Schrameck

France’s highest court, the Conseil d’État, has rejected a set of complaints by two unions, the DFDT and the DVE-CGC, against media regulator the CSA concerning the process by which Delphone Ernotte-Cunci was chosen as president of public broadcaster France Télévisions.

The unions had alleged a number of irregularities in the process, including that the CSA had unilaterally changed the ruled concerning the pre-selection of candidates, during which a number of candidates including France Médias Monde president Marie-Christine Saragosse and Didier Quillot, former chief of Lagardère Active, were eliminated. It also alleged that CSA president Olivier Schrameck had manifested partiality during this phase of the process.

The Conseil d’État ruled that the CSA had acted properly and that Schrameck’s actions could not be said to have shown evidence of a breach of impartiality.

The Conseil d’État also rejected accusations of partiality on the part of CSA member Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette in favour of Ernotte-Cunci and opacity in the process. Regarding the latter, it said the CSA was not obliged to make the names of candidates public.

Schrameck issued a statement in which he said that the ruling showed that “all the arguments throwing into question the procedure of selecting the president of France Télévisions are unfounded” and noted that the judges had “the overall procedure respected at all points the principle of impartiality”.