Paris court acquits media watchdog of libel over footage of boy's death
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PARIS: A Paris appeals court ruled in favor of a self-styled media watchdog accused of libel for claiming that French footage of the shooting death of a Palestinian boy was faked, his lawyer said.
In acquitting Philippe Karsenty, the court ruled that he had acted in good faith and "exercised his free criticism against a power, that of the press," said his attorney, Patrick Maisonneuve.
The court confirmed the acquittal but said it would not explain its ruling before Thursday.
France 2 network's images from Sept. 30, 2000, showed the death of Mohammed al-Dura, cowering terrified with his father amid furious gunfire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
On his Web site Media-Ratings, which casts a critical eye on the reliability of French mainstream media, Karsenty had claimed that the report was "pure fiction."
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The public broadcaster and its Israel correspondent, Charles Enderlin, filed a libel suit against Karsenty, and a Paris judge ruled in their favor in 2006. Karsenty appealed.
France 2 said Wednesday it would challenge the latest ruling.
In the network's report, the father gestured frantically to try to stop the shooting as the boy screamed in terror. It then cut to a shot of the motionless boy slumped in his father's lap. The report said the gunfire came from nearby Israeli positions.
But the circumstances remain in dispute.
Palestinians blamed Israeli troops for the death. The incident became a recurring symbol for Palestinians of excessive Israeli force.
The Israeli army initially said the gunfire "apparently" came from Israeli positions. But a military investigation subsequently determined it was "quite plausible that the boy was hit by Palestinian bullets in the course of an exchange of fire."
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