Watched by a global audience, last month’s opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris featured an obscene mockery of the Christian Last Supper. Everyone is entitled to their view was a liberal response and some even suggested it was a ‘celebration’ of diverse religious belief. Just days before, the French state fined the second largest rolling news channel CNews €20,000 (£17,000) for failing to question a contributor’s view that human-caused global warming was a scam. Welcome to free speech, French style. It is fine and dandy to mock religious belief, or at least the Christian beliefs held by millions of citizens, but take a sceptical view of a hotly disputed and highly politicised science matter and the fines rain down. Catholicism might be the nominal religion of France but it’s not that of the ruling elites. Their new religion is Gaia worship and like the Medieval Popes of old the courts await for those who dare to challenge infallible dogma handed down by the new climate priests.
CNews is a popular ‘Right-of-centre’ news channel and in August 2023 it featured the opinion of the economist Philippe Herlin that human-caused global warming was a lie and a scam. In his view it was being used to justify the intervention of the state, absolve the State from having to reduce public spending “and is a form of totalitarianism”. The state broadcast regulator Arcom found that CNews’s lack of reaction to his charge was a “failure” to meet an obligation “to ensure an honest presentation of controversial issues”.
Read more: French State Regulator Hits Broadcaster with €20,000 Fine for Climate ‘Misinformation’
