Abstract
Terrorist attacks generate intense media coverage, in which horror is constructed as a communication framework that brings together performances of propaganda, information, reaction and reception. This results in irreducible complexity for journalists who must inform the public while being an active part of this same communications framework. These issues are particularly important for television, which finds itself at the centre of recurring and heated public debates about the role of the media in relation to terrorism. This chapter analyses the factors explaining the evolution of the regulatory framework for broadcast media since the Islamist attacks of the 1990s.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The present study is part of the project SENSI-TV-T, with the support of the CNRS, and the project MEDIATERR, linked to Équipex DIME-SHS.
- 2.
For example, on 18 March 2021, the CSA imposed—for the first time on a 24-hour news channel—a fine of 200,000 euros on the private channel CNews for ‘inciting hatred’ and ‘violence’, after a polemicist described underage migrants as ‘thieves’, ‘rapists’ and ‘murderers’.
- 3.
‘I simply note that the extraordinary lack of media discipline which characterised these attacks was unparalleled in any country in the world, and undoubtedly exceeded all the hopes that the terrorists might have placed in their endeavour to destabilise French society. […] Everyone in life must assume their responsibilities’ (TV news, 1 pm, France 2, 5 September 1995).
- 4.
CSA, Circular of 24 August 1995 on the accuracy of the information and the verification of sources (coverage of the attacks).
- 5.
CSA, verdict of 24 April 2012.
- 6.
CSA, verdict of 10 July 2012.
- 7.
CSA, Recommendation no. 2013-04 of 20 November 2013 on the treatment of international conflicts, civil wars and terrorist acts by broadcasting bodies.
- 8.
Le Monde, 23 June 2015.
- 9.
CSA, communiqué of 12 February 2015.
- 10.
Report by the Parliamentary Commission investigating the means implemented by the state in the struggle against terrorism since 7 January 2015, published by the Assemblée Nationale, 5 July 2016.
- 11.
CSA, press release of 25 November 2015.
- 12.
CSA, Précautions relatives à la couverture audiovisuelle d’actes terroristes, 25 October 2016.
- 13.
This measure was defended by the Observatory for Information Ethics (ODI) and involved creating an independent body made up of representatives of the profession and the public.
- 14.
Le Monde, 7 September 1995.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Libération, 6 September 1995.
- 17.
Libération, 8 September 1995.
- 18.
Le Point, 10 July 2012.
- 19.
Reporters sans frontières, quoted in Libération, 10 July 2012.
- 20.
ODI, Rapport sur les journées de janvier 2015, 13 March 2015.
- 21.
86 people were killed (and 458 injured) by a truck on 14 July celebrations in Nice and a priest was killed during mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray (26 July). There were op-eds on the radio (France Culture,15 July) and in the press (Le Monde, 16 July); and a petition ‘asking for the anonymity of terrorists in the media’, launched on 18 July 2016 on Change.org, attracted over 165,000 signatures in just a few weeks.
- 22.
‘Following the attack in Nice, we will no longer be publishing the photos of those who carry out these killings, so as to avoid any posthumous glorification’ (Le Monde, 27 July 2016).
- 23.
Libération, 28 July 2016.
- 24.
Communiqué of France Télévisions, 15 July 2016.
References
Agnès, Y. 2013. Les ambitions régulatrices du CSA. Bulletin de Préfiguration d’un Conseil de Presse en France 24: 1–2.
Aubert, A., P. Charaudeau, and D. Mehl. 2018. Les attentats du 13 novembre sur BFM TV: informer en direct face au défi terroriste. Réseaux 207 (1): 229–254.
Bazin, M., G. Ferragu, and C. Sécail, eds. 2019. Special Issue: L’attentat, du tyrannicide au terrorisme. Le Temps des médias 32 (1): 219.
Dayan, D. (ed.) 2006. La terreur spectacle: terrorisme et télévision. Louvain-la-Neuve: De Boeck.
Demirdjian, L. 2017. Le traitement médiatique du terrorisme: l’autonomie des journalistes à l’épreuve des critiques. Master’s dissertation. EHESS.
Garcin-Marrou, I. 2001. Terrorisme, médias et démocratie. Lyon: Presses universitaires de Lyon.
Graber, D.A. 2003. Terrorism, Censorship and the 1st Amendment: In Search of Policy Guidelines. In Framing Terrorism: The News Media, the Government and the Public, ed. P. Norris, K. Montague, and J. Marion, 27–42. New York: Routledge.
Kavoori, A.P., and T. Fraley, eds. 2006. Media, Terrorism, and Theory: A Reader. Lanham/Oxford: Rowan & Littlefield.
Lamy, A. 2006. Les spécificités du traitement médiatique dans l’urgence: l’exemple des attentats du 11 septembre 2001. Communication & Organisation 29: 108–122.
Lefébure, P., and C. Sécail, eds. 2016a. Le défi Charlie: les médias à l’épreuve des attentats. Paris: Lemieux éditeur. Free access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01273505.
———. 2016b. La critique des publics. Les courriers du médiateur de l’information de France 2. In Le défi Charlie: les médias à l’épreuve des attentats, ed. P. Lefébure and C. Sécail, 279–314. Paris: Lemieux éditeur.
Lefébure, P., E. Roche, and C. Sécail. 2018. Les attentats du 13 novembre en direct à la télévision: mise en récit de l’événement et de ses ramifications. Mots. Les Langages Du Politique 118: 37–57.
Matusitz, J. 2012. Terrorism and Communication: A Critical Introduction. New York: Sage.
Norris, P., K. Montague, and J. Marion, eds. 2003. Framing Terrorism: The News Media, the Government and the Public. New York: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lefébure, P., Sécail, C. (2022). On Television: Journalists Caught Between Rival Demands. In: Faucher, F., Truc, G. (eds) Facing Terrorism in France. French Politics, Society and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94163-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94163-5_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-94162-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-94163-5
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)