Are French media covering an hoax? No says a French judge before appeal

1) Philippe Karsenty, what is your reaction after this first judgment by a French court? Are you sure the France 2 report was faked?

I’m shocked by this judgment just like everybody else who was at the trial. This judgment doesn’t make sense.  Not only the fact that I’ve been found guilty of defamation against France 2 and Enderlin, but also the explanations given by the judge. The opinion of the judge is so twisted that only a “divine” intervention could explain it.
Concerning what I call "the faked France 2 report", there are no doubts. We presented our evidence to the court and France 2 wasn't able to offer any evidence to support its claim.
During the trial, the judge seemed to have understood our point and was unhappy that France 2 didn’t bring any proof. Even the “Procureur de la République” was supporting our thesis by saying that we had shown evidence.
We are going to appeal the decision and, if France is still a functioning democracy, we are confindent: on our Media Ratings website, people will be able to see a dead boy raise his elbow, look at the cameraman, and put down his elbow (see the photo)… I’m sure the French justice will look very brilliant after this!

2) The Al Durah video seems linked to professional ethics in television. But how did the French press react to the case?

Most of the French press reacted unethically because they supported France 2, without any discussion.
We were treated like liars and crazy revisionists. Most of them refused to see the proof. Some journalists saw the video but when they realized that it was such a big forgery, most of them thought "I don’t want to go there." So, they started to deny what they saw, to rationalize, and in the end, they just avoided confronting the proof. Another interesting point is that almost no journalist was there at the 5-hour-long trial where we exposed our point of view. But there were lots of them at the verdict that took 1 minute and didn’t reveal any information.  Why?

3) How do you explain this sort of “French omertà”?

France Télévisions is the most powerful media group in France with TF1. It controls France 2, 3, 4, 5 and others. Most journalists have, or will, work with France Télévisions in his career. If you add that the French Diplomacy (the Quai d'Orsay) was not unhappy with this forged film, you can understand that it was difficult to confront French media about the forgery.

4) How to avoid such “omertà” in the future? What are the lessons of this verdict for the French press?

I don't really know because the forces that we’re confronting are very strong. But if I can suggest some ideas, I would say that the French media needs to renew its journalists. We have old journalists with old friends supporting each other.
We also need to really separate French media from politics.
In our case, it could have been very useful if the foreign press would have covered our trial with accuracy.
Generally speaking, I think that foreign countries should understand that the French media is less free to criticize French foreign policy than any other press of western countries.

5) Charles Enderlin, the French reporter responsible for the Al Durah report for France 2 said that this is a “French-French” debate and that in other countries – including Israel – nobody cares. Is that true?

Yes, it's true, except for some US media outlets that are interested in this affair.
It was French images that have been shot for French TV, but which unfortunately raised Muslim hate against the whole western world.
It's true that in Israel, nobody cares because the officials say that they don't want this image again in the media. They say that, whatever happened, it will damage the Israeli image.

6) Do you have examples of objective articles related to the Al Durah story?

Yes, of course. I would say that the best French article has been published by Jacques Bertoin in Jeune Afrique in January 2005. Then, you have great articles that have been published in the US in Commentary or in the Wall Street Journal.

7) French national newspapers have a very small circulation. Is it linked to a more global credibility issue?

I really believe that French newspapers don't inform their readers but analyze, with their ideology, the news that is already public.
The fact that not any newspaper accepted to analyze our evidence until now is unbelievable. Press supporters should be the readers but, by refusing to really inform their readers, the French press has lost its readers.

8) What will be the future of Media-Ratings after the conclusion of this story?

I can’t tell, apart from the fact that we have appealed the verdict and that we will probably organize conferences in France and in the US to show our evidence and to speak about French media and politics. Can you believe that, after this Al Durah story, France Televisions is going to launch France 24, what they call a “CNN à la française”?

Source: Media Ratings (in French) and former posting