Controversy
On 16 May 1993, Radio Courtoisie and host Serge de Beketch were convicted of defaming Olivier Biffaud, journalist for the daily newspaper Le Monde, and sentenced to pay a single Franc symbolic of damages and interests, as well as 8,000 Francs court costs. De Beketch had declared, mentioning Biffaud's initials, that it would be a good name for a sanitary towel. The court judged that this phrase "offended against the delicacy and dignity of the person in question".
A Radio Courtoisie interview of Alain Menargues in October 2004 caused controversy due to his claim that the Jews created the first ghettoes because they disliked being around "impure non-Jews.".
From 1997 to 2006, the French Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel broadcasting authority examined Radio Courtoisie, for statements considered potentially racist, injurious or revisionist which were broadcast on air and originated from a host or speaker, issuing three letters, and two warnings. As a sanction, the CSA ordered its communiqué to be inserted at the beginning of the programme Le Libre Journal' on 13 November 2006 at 6 pm.
Some critics of Radio Courtoisie assert that positions espoused by certain hosts on air are close to those of the extreme right, pointing to broadcasts with contributors from traditionalist Catholicism, the Mouvement pour la France, the Mouvement national républicain and the Front National. They also base this on the opposition described in certain programmes between the so-called droite molle (soft right, principally including the Union pour un mouvement populaire), and the rest of the right wing, meaning to the right of the UMP. Those Radio Courtoisie hosts who are close to the Front national or who accept them, reject the "extreme right" moniker, with the exception of de Beketch. Le Pen himself recalled on air at Radio Courtoisie the same refusal to be ascribed to this category, preferring "national right".
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