Impartiality of public audiovisuel: Arcom endorses the notices in Bruno Lasserre's report

In September 2025, Arcom announced its intention to pursue the work it had begun in order to clarify the scope of the public audiovisuel's impartiality obligation, specify the resulting obligations and evaluate the existing tools and schemes within public service channels and antennas.

Charged by law with guaranteeing the impartiality of public audiovisuel, Arcom also requested that an independent study be carried out to gain a better understanding of how the French perceive the impartiality of public audiovisuel.

Bruno Lasserre, honorary vice-president of the Conseil d'État, chairman of the Commission d'accès aux documents administratifs (Cada) and former chairman of the Competition Authority, was commissioned by Arcom to submit his findings today. At the same time, Arcom is publishing the results of a study conducted by ThinkOut and Toluna - Harris Interactive, dedicated to this issue.

Bruno Lasserre's report stresses that impartiality, an essential condition for meeting the expectations of the public in all its diversity and creating the necessary confidence of the French in the public service, is first and foremost a requirement that strengthens the existing obligations for the audiovisual industry as a whole. It implies a duty to set an example in terms of transparency, honest information and plurality in the expression of currents of thought and opinion.

The opinion survey shows that, despite certain areas of concern, the bond of trust between the French and the audiovisuel public service is solid overall. When asked what impartiality means to them, the French express expectations in terms of a clear distinction between facts and opinions, fair treatment of opinions, and honesty and transparency in the processing of information.

In response to these findings, Bruno Lasserre's report sets out 17 notices, applicable in the short to medium term.

The aim of these notices is to anchor the notion of impartiality more firmly in legislation and in practice, by including the notion in company specifications, setting up a complaints handling mechanism for channels and stations, strengthening ethics committees, adopting editorial charters specifying the ethical rules applicable to news and information, and including the obligation of confidentiality in company by-laws.

Over the next six weeks, Arcom will be holding discussions with public audiovisuel publishers and the French Ministry of Culture. At the end of these discussions, the Authority will present an action plan covering all the proposals falling directly within its remit.

Watch Martin Ajdari's speech at the conference presenting the work on impartiality.

Read Bruno Lasserre's report on the impartiality of public audiovisual media

Read the study on the perception of impartiality in the public audiovisuel sector