In a brief hearing today, Appellate Court judge Laurence Trébucq read out the court order enjoining France 2 to hand over, no later than October 31, the raw footage filmed by cameraman Talal Abu Rahma on September 30 and October 1, 2000. Bénédicte Amblard, representing France 2, confirmed her client’s intention to comply. This confirms the request announced at the September 19 hearing of Philippe Karsenty’s appeal of his October 2006 conviction for defamation against France 2 and Charles Enderlin in the “al-Dura affair.” In the absence of mention of a huis clos, it is assumed that the November 14 hearing will be open to the public. An overflow crowd is expected.
This court order, which would seem perfectly reasonable to someone acquainted with the United States legal system, apparently is unprecedented in France. In fact, if the October 2006 defamation suit had been brought in an American court, the defendant’s lawyer certainly would have asked to examine the outtakes. (“Discovery” as we know it does not exist in French law. The burden of proof in a defamation case rests on the defendant.) The court of first resort had ruled that Karsenty’s public accusation of France 2 and Jerusalem correspondent Charles Enderlin, on his watchdog site Media-Ratings, was not based on a serious investigation of the facts. Further, the court discredited Karsenty’s arguments, “drawn from a single source—Metula News Agency.” The irony of this judgment is that Charles Enderlin relied on a single source—Palestinian cameraman Talal Abu Rahma—for the report of Muhammad al-Dura’s “death,” and failed to investigate the report after he received the raw footage, which contradicts the sworn testimony of the cameraman.
As for the “single source,” all investigators and analysts working over the past seven years to unearth the truth about the al-Dura affair have drawn on documentation collected and developed by Israeli physicist Nahum Shahaf. The mass of documentation, analysis, and reasoned argumentation subsequently accumulated would fill several books in several languages. On the other hand, France 2 and Charles Enderlin are still presenting the same flimsy arguments used ever since the report was aired, immediately provoking serious inquiry from many quarters. It should be noted that CNN rejected the al-Dura report proposed by Abu Rahma on September 30.
Skeptical readers of this blog suggest that even if the truth about the al-Dura report fully and convincingly were to be exposed, that would not change the underlying story or the attitudes the report has fostered. Beyond the realistic assessment of the enormous difficulties facing those who would reveal a giant media lie, stands our hope that democratic societies can demand a minimum of integrity from the journalists who claim to inform us. Recent developments in the al-Dura affair should encourage us to persevere.
French mainstream media do not even want to admit they know about this turn of events in the al-Dura affair. But Charles Enderlin whistles in the dark on his France 2 blog. “Finally,” he exclaims, “the raw footage will be projected…” and, he hopes, his critics will be silenced.
We shall see…
