Director of the Strategic Research Institute of the Military School (IRSEM), which belongs to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer was targeted for five tweets published in September 2018.
He stated in particular: "RT and Sputnik (...) frequently invent facts, falsify documents, translations or interviews".
He cited as an example the "falsification" of the translation of a report on Syria, the subject of a formal notice from the CSA in June 2018.
If three of the five tweets are indeed of a "defamatory" nature, the court noted that the "disinformation" constituted "a subject of general interest", that the researcher had not shown "personal animosity" and that he had "sufficient factual basis to legitimately believe what he was writing".
His lawyers had provided 70 examples where RT France (ex-Russia Today) had, according to them, shown misinformation.
During the hearing on March 17, Jean-Baptiste Jeangene Vilmer explained that the offending tweets were part of a "thread" written in response to the "rolling fire of criticism" from the Russian media and authorities after the publication of the report "The manipulation of information. A challenge for our democracies", of which he is the co-author.
He had described his remarks of 2018 as "consensual" and denounced the "judicial intimidation" practiced according to him by this channel.
The lawyer for RT France, who had no representative at the hearing, pleaded "technical error" for the poorly translated report and denied any "desire to mislead the viewer".
The prosecution had not requested a conviction, considering that the offending remarks were "not infringing on freedom of expression" because they "are part of a debate of general interest".
The court, on the other hand, refused the request for damages from the researcher, who considered that the complaint by RT France was part of an "abusive procedure".
Accused of being instruments of "disinformation" of Moscow in its war against Ukraine, RT and Sputnik have been banned from broadcasting in the European Union since March 2.
© 2022 AFP