French Supreme Court narrows broadcaster's grounds for the broadcaster to refuse right of reply
Published on 23 March 2026
The French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation, Ruling No. 24-17.983 and No. 24-17.984) has clarified that the principle of indivisibility of the right of reply under article 13 of the Law of 29 July 1881, article 6, al. 1 of Law No.82-652 of 29 July 1982 on audiovisual communication and article 6, IV (which became article 1-1, III) of Law No. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004, applies only to the content of the requested reply, not to the applicants.
Following the broadcast on 29 September 2022 on TV Channel France 2 of a report in “Complément d’enquête” on the pornography industry, managers of a distribution company featured in the report and the company itself sought a right of reply, alleging that the programme suggested their involvement in ongoing criminal proceedings and had therefore damaged their honour and reputation.
France Télévisions refused, and the Paris Court of Appeal rejected their application in interim proceedings on the ground that one of the individual applicants had not been personally identified and that, by virtue of the indivisibility principle, the request had to be refused for all.
Quashing the ruling, the Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeal should instead have examined whether the requested reply, as drafted, had a sufficient connection with the contested programme for the applicants who were actually targeted, and whether it could be published as drafted, only in their names.
Why it matters: Broadcasters cannot reject an entire right‑of‑reply request merely because one of the claimants was not personally targeted; they must assess whether the reply can be inserted for the benefit of those who were.
