A researcher who was sued for defamation by RT France for having mentioned a “manipulation of information» and «falsificationsof this television channel owned by the Russian state was released on Friday May 27 by the Paris court.
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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 thefalsificationof the translation of a report on Syria, the subject of a formal notice from the CSA in June 2018.
70 examples of misinformation
If three of the five tweets have a “defamatory“, the court noted that the “disinformation“constituted”a subject of general interest“, that the researcher had not demonstrated “personal animosity» and that he had a «sufficient factual basis for him 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 «fire of criticismfrom the Russian media and authorities after the publication of the report.manipulation of information. A challenge for our democracies“, of which he is the co-author. He called his 2018 remarks “consensual» and denounced the «judicial intimidationpracticed according to him by this chain.
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The lawyer for RT France, who had no representative at the hearing, pleaded with him to “technical error“for the mistranslated report and denied any”desire to deceive the viewer“. The prosecution had not asked for a conviction, considering that the incriminating remarks were “not infringing on freedom of expression” because they “were part of a debate of general interest“. The court, on the other hand, refused the request for damages from the researcher, who considered that RT France’s complaint fell under a “abusive procedure“. Accused of being instruments ofdisinformationof Moscow in its war against Ukraine, RT and Sputnik have been banned from broadcasting in the European Union since March 2.
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