A broadcasting watchdog group called on French TV news networks to use restraint in showing images of IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn in handcuffs, highlighting the country’s cautious reaction to the arrest of a man considered a contender to be France’s next president.
The broadcasting authority issued a release today reminding television networks that French law prohibits them from airing images of people in handcuffs until they have been convicted by a court, The Wall Street Journal reported today.
MAID’S BROTHER RECOUNTS HER HORROR
The law, passed in 2000, aims at strengthening the protection of the presumption of innocence. It allows for a maximum fine of $21,300, with any fines subject to approval by a court.
Rachid Arhab, a board member at The Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel, argued that the law applies to images aired in France “irrespective of whether they were shot abroad.”
A spokeswoman for the agency said it doesn’t plan further action to bring this kind of footage off the air and said it would be up to the individual, and not the agency, to sue for compensation.
Mayor Bloomberg also chimed in, saying, “I think it is humiliating, but, if you don’t want to do the perp walk, don’t do the crime. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for that. Our judicial system works where the public can see the alleged perpetrators.”
Olivier Ravanello, deputy managing editor with the news channel i-Télé, owned by Vivendi SA’s pay-TV channel Canal Plus Group, argued that the law doesn’t apply to a trial outside France.
“We can’t cover the DSK story like a French story for the simple reason it is happening in the US,” Ravanello told The Wall Street Journal. “The images we saw are brutal indeed, but that’s because of the nature of the US judiciary.”
Strauss-Kahn is accused of attacking a maid who had gone in to clean his penthouse suite Saturday afternoon at a luxury hotel near Times Square. He is charged with attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. The most serious charge carries five to 25 years in prison.
The 32-year-old maid told authorities that she thought the suite was empty but that Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway, pulled her into a bedroom and dragged her into a bathroom, police said.
Strauss-Kahn’s arrest has transfixed France, particularly because French law prohibits cameras inside the courtrooms.
Some of Strauss-Kahn’s supporters criticized the US practice of showing Strauss-Kahn in cuffs.
“I regret that the French media haven’t respected our law … prescribing that images that are humiliating and degrading for someone who’s still presumed innocent cannot be disseminated,” said Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry.
“We’ve been watching Strauss-Kahn on primetime TV shows and on the front page of all newspapers handcuffed, being forcibly pushed into a car by policemen, and this is contrary to the spirit of the law,” said Dominique de Leusse, a lawyer for Strauss-Kahn.
“Even if the handcuffs weren’t apparent, it was obvious that he was being coerced.”
With AP