Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel

The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (French: [kɔ̃sɛj sypeʁjœʁ də lɔdjɔvizɥɛl], Superior Council of the Audiovisual), abbreviated CSA, is a French institution created in 1989 whose role is to regulate the various electronic media in France, such as radio and television. The creation of the Haute Autorité de la Communication Audiovisuelle was a measure found in the Socialist Party's electoral program of 1981, called 110 Propositions for France.

The CSA replaced the Commission Nationale de la Communication et des Libertés (CNCL), which itself replaced the , created in 1982 to supervise the attribution of radio frequencies to the private radio sector, which was judged better than allowing the anarchic creation of the radios libres ("free radios"), mainly composed of amateurs and NGOs.

The CSA always acts after content has been shown on a TV channel or heard on a radio, so it is not a censorship instance.

For example, the CSA asked the French government to forbid Al-Manar TV in 2005 because of charges of hate speech; it also claimed that MED TV was close to the Kurdish PKK, on grounds not of "evidences" but of "concording elements".

(as of January 2013)

The following pictograms are proposed to the different TV channels. Channels are responsible for displaying the right pictogram depending on the show and its time of broadcast. Note that -18 can be either non-pornographic (like the movie Ken Park) or pornographic.

Discouraged to persons under 10

Discouraged to persons under 12

Forbidden to persons under 16

Forbidden to persons under 18

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Wikipedia