On December 7, 2016, a report broadcast in the 20H of France 2 sparked controversy. Entitled "Public places: when women are undesirable", the subject assured that women were not welcome in a bar in Sevran. Four people, including the president of France Télévisions and the presenter of the newspaper of France 2, are today sent to trial for defamation, according to an order of which was informed Friday AFP.
Amar Salhi, the boss of the Jocy Club of Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis), had filed a defamation complaint due to race and origin against the president of France Télévisions, Delphine Ernotte, the presenter of the newspaper, David Pujadas , the journalist and author of the report, Caroline Sinz, and the activist Nadia Remadna, who had filmed hidden customers of the clients of her establishment.
All four were indicted and returned to the Paris Criminal Court, according to an order made on June 3. In matters of defamation, the indictment is almost automatic and the substantive debates take place at the hearing.
A place as a symbol of the supposed seizure of the Islamists
More than three years ago, France 2 had broadcast in its television news a report in which two feminist activists of the "Brigade des Mothers" ventured in hidden camera in this bar-PMU, to denounce the public places where women would be "undesirable. "
“In this cafe there is no mix”, “we are in Sevran, not in Paris (…) Here, it's a different mentality, it's like in the village,” customers tell them. "Going to a bar here is to defy a ban on a woman," said the voice-over.
The subject quickly stirred up social networks, where some erected the place as a symbol of the supposed seizure of the Islamists in the suburbs. The cameras of the whole world follow one another in front of this supposedly “forbidden” French cafe for women. In the weeks that followed, several media publish, however, counter-investigations showing that women are no more banished from the Jockey Club than gambling or alcohol.
The bar is now closed
With this trial, the date of which has not yet been set, Amar Salhi, who has finally closed his establishment, hopes to be able to "regain his honor." "It was awful. It changed my life, I lost a lot. They murdered me, ”said the 62-year-old man.
Requested by AFP, the France Télévisions group indicated that it “did not comment because the procedure is underway. "For Me Farid Bouzidi, the bar owner's lawyer, this report is" a hoax "," a hidden camera report to denounce facts that we knew to be false. "The journalist from France 2 never went there," he denounces.
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- Television
- Defamation
- France Televisions
- David Pujadas
- Delphine Ernotte
- France 2