The French film industry has been found guilty of racism for preventing black actors from dubbing white stars in Gallic versions of English-language movies.

An inquiry ruled that casting directors regularly excluded black applicants in the belief that they had a distinctive tone of voice unsuitable for dubbing white parts. The findings come amid claims that the failure to promote black stars in films and other media is contributing to a wider segregation in French society.

The Higher Authority for the Fight Against Discrimination and for Equality (Halde), France's equivalent of the Commission for Racial Equality, said that double standards were widespread within the French film industry. White actors were deemed to have “universal” voices able to dub black actors such as Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman, the investigation found. Black artists, meanwhile, were victims of “prejudice and stereotypes” which meant that they were hardly ever chosen to dub white stars.

The Halde ordered the French Federation of Cinema, Audiovisual and Multimedia Industries and the Union of Dubbing Companies to implement anti-racism training.

The inquiry came after Yasmine Modestine, a black actress and singer, complained that she had been the victim of discrimination when she was excluded from dubbing a white star in an American television series. “Directors in the dubbing world believe that black people have black voices. But if that's the case how come whites are allowed to dub blacks? The truth is it's racism,” she told The Times.

Although the Halde failed to find evidence to back Mrs Modestine's personal claim, it said that her general allegation of widespread racism in the dubbing industry was justified.

Almost a third of the applicants in French dubbing studios were black, it said, but they rarely got prime roles and were almost systematically excluded when the roles involved dubbing “white” voices. Pascal Légitimus, one of France's best-known black film stars, told Le Nouvel Observateur, the weekly magazine, that he had struggled to obtain dubbing contracts for white roles. “I once dubbed a white in Crocodile Dundee II, but that's all,” he said. In a recent survey, 56 per cent of black French people said they had experienced discrimination.

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