The lawmakers concerned meet again on Tuesday at 1 p.m. They will then vote either to shelve the petition or to organize a debate in the chamber. In July, lawmakers shelved another petition, backed by more than 700,000 signatures, opposing a bill establishing a presumption of legitimate use of firearms by law enforcement.
The recent precedent limits the automatic effect of such a threshold. Of the three petitions that have already passed the required 500,000 signatures, only the one against the Duplomb law led to a debate in the chamber.
CNews, a channel in the fold of conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, is regularly accused of promoting far-right opinions and themes. It disputes these accusations and says it defends freedom of expression.
A petition that reached this stage of the procedure had gathered, at its close, more than two million signatures.