Christine Kelly
Christine Eugénie Kelly is a French radio and television presenter, journalist, and writer.
She has been working in media since 1992, first in Guadeloupe, then in metropolitan France. She was a member of the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel from 2009 to 2015. She then chaired the Alice Millat Foundation, a European foundation for women's sports.
She has hosted on the TV channel CNews since 2019.
Biography
Early life
Christine Kelly was born on in Lamentin, Guadeloupe, France.Both her parents were schoolteachers who lived in a tied cottage in a school. They then lived in a house built by her parents in Lamentin. She is the second of four children.
Her mother was violent and her father was an alcoholic. She was physically abused during her childhood. Her mother left Guadeloupe to settle in Paris. Her father joined them a year later after she stopped drinking.
After multiple suicide attempts, Kelly left home when she was 20.
Professional career
After a scientific education, Christine Kelly considered becoming a flight attendant but decided against it and turned to television.Presenter in the Guadeloupean media (1992–1996)
In 1992, Christine Kelly joined the private channel Archipel 4, to present Caribscope, a bilingual TV show. At the same time, she hosted a free broadcast on K’danse FM. Two years later, she became a presenter on.Beginnings in France (1996–2000)
In 1996 Christine Kelly gave up presenting to become a journalist, at 27 years old. She was trained at the Institut national de l'audiovisuel then at the. She then did reportages for different regional stations of France 3, while working at the same time for the political service of RFO, the radio station Chérie FM and the newspaper Sud Ouest.In 1997, she participated to the creation of Demain. TV, a channel that discusses employment and professional training. The channel is owned by the Canal+ Group. In 1999, she work on La Chaîne Météo and Voyage.
Journalist at LCI (2000–2009)
In February 2000 she joined the continuous news channel LCI to present the morning journal. while presenting a monthly program on RFO and becoming consultant for the UNESCO. She was the first Black women to present a show on TV in metropolitan France. From March 2005 to July 2006, she was the editor-in-chief and presenter of a show on sustainable development, Le Magazine, on Ushuaïa TV.After six months of research on a biography of François Fillon, she returned to television in February 2008 to present the afternoon Jnews on LCI and co-present Terre-Mère, a weekly show on the environment.
In September 2008 she started presenting LCI Matin week-end on Fridays from 6 to 9am and the Saturday and Sunday news programmes from 6:30 to 10:30am.
Member of the CSA (2009–2015)
On January 24, 2009, without having applied, she was appointed to the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel, the regulatory body for audiovisual content in France, by Gérard Larcher, the Speaker of the Senate. She is the youngest member of the CSA and the first from an overseas territory. There were recommendations from Nicolas Sarkozy to give her a governmental mission or even the ministry of the overseas, but she opted to finish her term at the CSA.At the CSA Christine Kelly persuaded the television channels to include subtitles on their programs for the deaf and lower the sound level of ads after 20 years of campaigning in France, a world first. She also asked information channels to include news broadcasting in sign language, a first in France.
In 2009 a law project was discussed in the parliament to regulate food ads during programs destined to children. To face the risks of an interdiction, the CSA established a « food charter » in which the advertisers formulated commitments. As the chief of the mission « Santé et développement durable » of the CSA, Christine Kelly defended this text.
The charter is considered inefficient by the UFC-Que Choisir, a consumer organization and by nutrition experts because it is non-binding and favoring, according to them, media financing of the fight against obesity. the regulation of advertising for aliments pour des aliments qui sont fatty, sweet and salty destined to minors showed its efficiency following scientific studies, experimentations and even its implementation in other countries.
In 2012 she preconized the reduction from five to two weeks of the period during which candidates of a presidential election have an equity of speaking time.
In 2013 Christine Kelly made it possible to cite Facebook and Twitter on television, which had been forbidden until then. She also defined the rules about product placement in fiction, which was also forbidden until then in television.
To address the lack of attention to women's sports, Christine Kelly, who was also president of the sports mission of the CSA, decided to create the first international day of women's sports in the media: 24 heures du sport féminin. A second day was organized by Christine Kelly on January 24, 2015.
After the CSA (2015–2018)
In 2015 she launched a project of European museum of medias called Villa Média, which was supposed to be opened to the public in 2019 in Saint-Denis, and of which she became president. In line with this project, she organizes days of debate and reflection devoted to media education, a program many celebrity personalities have participated in.In 2015 she was also elected as chief of the 2015 jury of the Globe de Cristal Awards, a reward awarded by récompenses décernées par la French press in the domains of art and culture.
Until October 2020 she was president of the, the only European foundation for women's sport, launched in 2016 in the presence of François Hollande, the President of France at that time.
She is an ambassador of the Euro 2016, nominated by François Hollande.
In March 2018 she joined the team of Touche pas à mon poste !, on the channel C8, as a chronicler. During the summer of 2018, she presented a program in which she retraces the journey of a guest every Sunday on RTL. She also hosted a daily debate segment on CNews, where she appeared on the program Punchline alongside Laurence Ferrari. Following the 2018 media season, she joined Cyril Hanouna’s new show, , on C8, as a regular columnist.
Presenter of ''Face à l'info'' (since 2019)
Since her return to TV in 2019, Christine Kelly presents Face à l'info on CNews, between 19 and 20 pm from Monday to Friday.The program drew controversy for providing a platform to the writer and polemist Éric Zemmour. Upon its launch, several public figures announced a boycott of the channel; concurrently, Christine Kelly received death threats.. Kelly faced significant criticism and pressure from detractors who accused her of being too complacent toward Zemmour's views. She has since publicly distanced herself from his opinions.
Face à l’info quickly became CNews’s flagship program, achieving record ratings with nearly one million viewers in 2021. These figures propelled CNews to the top of the news channel rankings for its time slot, fueling the channel's competitive growth against BFM TV.
Since January 2021 Christine Kelly presents every Sundays on CNews the program La Belle Histoire de France, with Franck Ferrand and Marc Menant.
In November 2021, Christine Kelly filed a police complaint after receiving death threats via SMS. The case was taken up by the Paris public prosecutor's office in January 2022. In October of that year, the harasser was sentenced to 18 months of suspended imprisonment and ordered to complete a 'citizenship course' focused on cyberharassment. Additionally, the court imposed a five-year restraining order, prohibiting any direct or indirect contact with Kelly.
In April 2023 Kelly sponsored the on line media Factuel, politically oriented to the right.
On January 17, 2024, Arcom imposed a €50,000 fine on CNews for an episode of the program Face à l'Info broadcast on September 26, 2022, and hosted by Christine Kelly. The sanction was due to a violation of the obligation to ensure honesty and rigor in the presentation and processing of information. At issue was Christine Kelly saing that France ranked behind Mexico in terms of insecurity, citing an unreliable source, with the approval of her guests on set.
This kind of fine is very rare. And is the second time CNews was sanctioned for this reason. The first time was in 2022 when they were fined for €1.
Associative commitments
Christine Kelly is a member of the agency's steering committee since 2006.In April 2010 Kelly founded the la Foundation K d’urgences – under the aegis of the Fondation de France – a foundation dedicated to helping single-parent families. Kelly suffered from child abuse and her father was absent during part of her childhood.
The foundation has established a free "speed-dating" system connecting bailiffs with single-parent families to assist them in recovering unpaid alimony. It is supported by, among others, Charles Aznavour, Claire Chazal and Michel Drucker.
Every year, the foundation organizes "Journée K", which attracts nearly 3,000 families and is the largest gathering for single-parent families in France. In 2017, the fifth annual Journée K was held under the patronage of Valérie Pécresse, President of the région Île-de-France region.
At the beginning of 2013, Christine Kelly presented ten proposals to support single-parent families to President François Hollande. In June 2014, she launched the Single-Parent Families Charter, which was signed by 22 companies committed to promoting employment opportunities for single-parent families.
In 2015, she was appointed as an administrator of the Engie Foundation by Gérard Mestrallet. The foundation supports projects aimed at benefiting young people and promoting employment.