QuotaClimat filed an appeal today with the Council of State (Conseil d’État), France’s highest administrative court, after the Arcom refused to formally notify CNews for airing climate-sceptic remarks that went unchallenged on air. The association is asking the country’s top administrative jurisdiction to find that CNews failed to meet its obligations, and to order the Arcom to reconsider its decision – especially since the regulator has already imposed a financial penalty on the same channel for a similar case.
Unchallenged climate-sceptic remarks: a breach of the channel’s obligations
On November 22, 2025, during the program Face à Michel Onfray on CNews, commentator Michel Onfray stated that while everyone attributes global warming to human activity, astrophysics also teaches that warming can stem from what he called “pluriverses” and “multiverses” and interactions between universes – a claim he said would require some astrophysics to understand.
These comments cast doubt on the human origin of global warming, despite the existence of a scientific consensus on the matter.
No context, contradiction, or correction was offered on set. QuotaClimat argues this amounts to a double failure: a breach of CNews’s duty of honest information[1], and a loss of editorial control over its own airtime[2]. On the basis of these breaches, QuotaClimat filed a complaint with the Arcom on November 26, 2025.
An inexplicable rejection, after a landmark sanction for climate disinformation
Having received no response to its initial complaint, QuotaClimat filed a formal appeal with the regulator on March 11, 2026. In a decision dated July 1, 2026, the Arcom rejected that request.
For QuotaClimat, the decision is hard to understand, given that in 2024 the Arcom had already financially sanctioned CNews for a similar segment, to the tune of €20,000 — a landmark decision that CNews contested but that the Council of State upheld on November 6, 2025. That precedent has since influenced other regulators across Europe, including the UK’s Ofcom.
The Arcom’s intervention is all the more necessary because these failures are not isolated incidents. Of the 665 cases of climate misinformation recorded in French media in 2025, 174 involved CNews (source: Observatoire des médias sur l’écologie).
This episode illustrates the channel’s broader editorial responsibility. Michel Onfray did not appear merely as a guest, but as the host and central figure of a weekly program bearing his name. It is part of a recurring pattern on the channel: 57% of the climate misinformation cases identified on CNews last year were broadcast by staff journalists or regular commentators.
Moreover, on June 27, Michel Onfray repeated similar remarks on the same program, again without any pushback, saying that people are very human-centered in their thinking, and recalling that the planet exists within a configuration of universes, which themselves sit within a configuration of “pluriverses,” with interactions we don’t understand — adding that in the past there were no mopeds, planes or trains, that the population was minimal, and that the planet has gone through periods of warming before.
“The Arcom was the first regulator in the world to financially sanction climate disinformation. It’s essential that it continues to take a stand on this issue. The Council of State’s ruling could mark a turning point in the regulation of climate disinformation, but time is running out.” – Eva Morel, Secretary General of QuotaClimat
A democratic issue, months ahead of the presidential election
This case goes beyond CNews alone. It raises a central question: can the regulator actually act where breaches keep multiplying?
“Broadcasters need to understand that current law doesn’t allow them to let climate-sceptic claims go unchallenged on air.” – Thomas Chevandier, attorney.
Timeline of the case
- November 22, 2025: The segment airs on CNews
- November 25, 2025: QuotaClimat files a complaint with the Arcom
- March 11, 2026: QuotaClimat files a formal appeal with the Arcom
- July 1, 2026: The Arcom rejects the complaint. QuotaClimat takes the case to the Council of State.
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[1]In violation of Article 1 of the CSA’s April 18, 2018 deliberation, which requires broadcasters to demonstrate rigor in the presentation and handling of information, and of Article 2-3-7 of the November 27, 2019 agreement between the CSA and the broadcaster, which states that the requirement of honesty applies to all programming and that the license holder commits to respecting the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel’s deliberation on the honesty and independence of information and related programming.
[2]In violation of Article 2-2-1 of the same November 27, 2019 agreement, which states that the broadcaster is responsible for the content of the programs it airs and retains editorial control over its airtime at all times.
