Ethics in our news and programmes

We are careful to comply with our public undertakings regarding ethics and compliance around the content we produce and broadcast – such as independence in news coverage, protecting vulnerable viewers, respect for privacy, and the presumption of innocence. Programme compliance is subject to rigorous control by our General Counsel, by management in our News and Broadcasting operations, and by the Committee on Honesty, Independence and Pluralism in news and programming, which we set up in 2017 in response to the Law of 14 November 2016.

Following changes to broadcasters’ licensing agreements, this committee was set up pursuant to the law designed to strengthen the liberty, independence and pluralism of the media. It has the following members, all of whom are independent:

Claude Carré, Journalist
Edith Dubreuil, Magistrate
Philippe Lucet, Barrister
Jean-Marc Pillas, Journalist
Michel Vaquin, Engineer

The Committee helps uphold the principles of honesty, independence and pluralism in news and news-related programmes, and ensures that the economic interests of our shareholders and advertisers do not undermine those principles.

The Committee can be contacted at: comitedeontologieinfo@tf1.fr

Ensuring that the news is reliable, serious and of high quality is a major concern of our News division. Our newsrooms are staffed by professional journalists; thanks to exemplary news processing, guaranteed reliable sources, and a standards committee guaranteeing the independence and pluralism of the news, the TF1 group acts as a rampart against disinformation.

Mindful of our great responsibility to our viewers, we run a range of media awareness and education initiatives across the French regions. Within our news teams, our 70 fact-checking experts – each serving one of our news departments (Economics, Politics, General News, Society, International Relations) – head up the daily fightback against fake news.

• Warnings for younger viewers: our Viewing Committee decides on the most appropriate warnings to accompany any programme (other than ads) not recommended for all viewers.
• Child psychologist for kids’ programmes (TFOU): ever since we launched our kids’ slot, a child psychologist has watched all bought-in programmes, and worked with our in-house teams at an early stage on series that we co-produce. The psychologist may suggest cuts, or even deem episodes unsuitable for broadcast.
• Respect Zone: in 2020, we renewed our financial support for Respect Zone, a charity that promotes respect on the internet and the moderation of online content and spaces, and campaigns against cyber-violence.

• Viewer Feedback: “TF1 & Vous”, our viewer feedback site, has a community of 100,000 people.
• News Mediator: the public can contact our News Mediator with requests for explanations or to make a complaint about news items broadcast on TF1 or LCI. She can explain how TV news bulletins are put together, and what the rules are. She can also alert our news teams when significant numbers of viewers make similar comments about an item.