French TV station wins Palestinian boy libel case

PARIS, Oct 20 (Reuters) Broadcaster France 2 won a libel case over accusations it faked a report into the killing of a Palestinian boy whose death in 2000 became a symbol of the uprising known as the second intifada.

The Court of First Instance in Paris ordered Philippe Karsenty, director of Media Ratings, a website that comments on the media, to pay France 2 and its Israel correspondent Charles Enderlin symbolic damages of one euro (1.25 dollar) each.

''Hopefully this decision will end a campaign of defamation that is particularly dangerous because it affects those with a duty to inform the public,'' Benedicte Amblard, lawyer for France 2, told reporters after the ruling yesterday.

The public sector station had said the case was a matter of principle and it had sought no more than symbolic damages.

Karsenty, who was also fined 1,000 euros and told to pay legal costs of 3,000 euros, said he would appeal the decision.

''It is a very sombre day for France. The French justice system has validated a false report,'' he told reporters after the decision. ''We are going to appeal straight away. It is a very surprising judgement.'' Media Ratings accused France 2 of using staged footage in a report into the death of 12 year-old Mohammed al-Durra on Sept.

30, 2000 and demanded the sacking of the station's head of news as well as Enderlin.

The report by France 2 accused Israeli troops of shooting the boy as he took cover with his father during a gun battle between Israeli and Palestinian forces.

Harrowing footage shot by a France 2 cameraman, showing Mohammed and his father crouching in terror behind a wall apparently seconds before he was shot, was shown around the world and he was widely seen as a martyr in the Arab world.

The Israeli army initially apologised for the boy's death but later held an investigation which concluded that Palestinian gunfire had probably killed him.

Online critics soon began to attack the France 2 report and further questions were raised by a German television documentary in 2002 which reached no firm conclusions but said the deaths could have been caused by Palestinians.

In an environment in which supporters of both sides have tried hard to influence media coverage of the conflict, the case has fed a climate of bitter suspicion and an outpouring of angry comment in online and print media.

France 2 has been accused of anti-Israeli bias while the station says it has been the target of a campaign of defamation by small, special interest groups.

The original report, which included some 50 seconds of the incident but did not show the moment of the boy's death, has been submitted to close scrutiny but the channel has also been criticised for not releasing its raw, uncut tape.

Two senior French journalists given access to the footage as part of an investigation into the affair later said that the film did not show that Israeli troops had killed the boy or even that he had died at all.

But they also said there was no evidence to suggest deliberate staging or manipulation.

As well as the case against Media Ratings, France 2 has sued two other websites over the affair.

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