Television coverage of the Israel-Gaza war has dipped sharply in France, five months after the start of conflict that has left 30,500 people so far and polarised people around the world. This diminishing visibility has raised concerns about media bias and self-censorship as more French viewers turn to international channels to stay informed.
Analysis shows the Gaza war and the ensuing humanitarian catastrophe has largely disappeared from French screens – namely the daily 8pm prime-time news bulletin – on channels TF1, France 2 and M6, which collectively reach 12.5 million viewers.
“This is a real breach of the duty to provide information,” says media anthropology researcher Celia Chirol, who is the first person to study French coverage of the events.
“Of the 20 news programmes analysed from 8-14 January, only 29 seconds of airtime were devoted to Gaza and the fate of the Palestinians.”
Broken down individually, those figures show five seconds for TF1, 10 seconds for M6 and 14 seconds for France 2 public television.
Chirol says this “invisibility” of the Palestinians and paltry reporting of the war in general came as the MeToo movement in French cinema and Jennifer Lopez’s latest film got top billing.
Editorial choices
Picking up on her research, Arrêt Sur Images (Freeze-Frame), a show that examines media biases and the impact of media on public perception, found similar results.
For a period of 10 days from 4-15 February, the show scrutinised news broadcasts on TF1 and France 2 and found that during 30 hours of airtime and 46 news bulletins, only five minutes were given to the situation in Gaza.
There were no dedicated segments or reports on Gaza during the flagship 1pm and 8pm news bulletins.
In addition, no French news channel provided a comprehensive tally of the number of deaths in Gaza during that period. Instead, coverage was focused on Israeli hostages, several of whom are French, and announcements from Israel's government.
The editorial choices likely reflected the perceived interests of the target audience, Arrêt Sur Images concluded.
A telling 'silence'
French media watchdog Acrimed, which promotes pluralism, democracy and journalistic integrity, carried out its own study of how the French media has framed the conflict in the days and weeks following Hamas' 7 October attack, that sparked Israel's deadly retaliatory bombing campaign on Gaza.
“This may seem paradoxical at first glance, but silence is part of the media noise, and what is kept silent is no less interesting than what is said,” Acrimed said as it documented a “process of marginalisation” of the besieged Gaza Strip and of Palestinians themselves.
Public fatigue with the prolonged conflict, or the perception that it is too complex to understand may also have contributed to the drop in coverage.
Media sociologist Jean-Marie Charon told RFI that when a major world event happens, "exhaustion" inevitably sets in and it can be challenging for the public to remain engaged.
“It’s a fairly classic phenomenon that we find particularly in situations of war or crisis,” Charon says, adding that the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long seemed like a hopeless cause.
The war in the Middle East is far more complex than the war in Ukraine, Charon says, which continues to make headlines despite also having a compounded social and political backstory.
The French may also feel more involved in Ukraine because they are geographically closer to it.
A steady decline
Studies have pointed to declining media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in France for the past 20 years.
This is despite France having the largest Jewish population outside of Israel and the United States, as well as the largest Muslim population in Europe.
Charles Enderlin, Israel correspondent for France 2 between 1981 and 2015, told La Revue des Médias online media industry magazine that a fear of "extreme backlash" from either camp may also be to blame.
The subject is shrouded in taboo, to the point where tip-toeing and fears of being accused of bias appear to have led the broadcast media to censor itself, forcing French viewers to switch to international channels with rolling coverage.
"France is in the Western camp, and Israel is a part of that," adds Pascal Boniface, director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs.
"And this very visible in the media."
This article was adapted by Amanda Morrow from the French original version written by Anne Bernas.
