Cyril Hanouna, the flagship host of the show “Touche pas à mon poste”, must be judged for the insults he uttered against the rebellious MP Louis Boyard. The hearing was postponed.
The altercation lasted around ten minutes, but two years later, it is still at the heart of the news. This Tuesday, November 12, the host was summoned to the Paris Criminal Court for “public insults”. The facts date back to November 10, 2022: Louis Boyard was invited on the set of Touche pas à mon poste (TPMP), a program regularly targeted by Arcom (the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication) for its successive slip-ups . Due to these repeated sanctions, the audiovisual policeman decided, in July 2024, not to renew the TNT frequencies of C8, a subsidiary of the Canal+ group whose majority shareholder is the French billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
Unwittingly, the businessman was the initiator of the altercation between the host Cyril Hanouna and Louis Boyard. On the occasion of his visit, the rebellious MP was to discuss with other columnists about the fate of the 230 migrants present on board the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking, rescued and welcomed at the military port of Toulon after several weeks at sea.
Throughout his argument, Louis Boyard claimed that the five richest people in France were “impoverishing Africa”. As examples, he gave the names of two billionaires: Patrick Pouyanné, the CEO of TotalEnergies, for his megaproject in Uganda and Vincent Bolloré for his involvement in the deforestation of Cameroon. An accusation little appreciated by the star presenter, working for the latter: “Do you know that you are in the Canal group here?”, he warned him.
A conviction that would do task
The exchange quickly escalated. Louis Boyard refused to reconsider his comments and affirmed with conviction that he had the right to express himself on the subject. The host then lost his temper and showered the chosen one with a shower of insults to try to silence him: “You’re a piece of shit”, “buffoon”, “idiot”, “shame”.
Following this sequence, the channel had to pay the 3.5 million euros fine requested by Arcom, in February 2023, for having “infringed the rights of the guest, respect for his honor and its reputation. A year later, on this day of trial, the sentence could get tougher: the presenter risks a fine of up to 12,000 euros. But it is above all the fact of being convicted by the courts which would remain a marker for the host, who likes to distribute good and bad points in his various shows.
The civil party filed a request for adjournment due to a calendar incompatibility, Louis Boyard’s lawyer being currently far from Paris, for another professional matter. The hearing will take place before the 17th criminal chamber of the Paris judicial court on December 17.