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On 14 June 2018, the television channel BFM TV broadcast two news items, each several minutes long, in which a journalist reported that a rape complaint had been filed against a lawyer and former French MP, who was an MEP at the time, as well as an interview with the complainant, who remained anonymous, and the captions “Laetitia, plaignante contre Gilbert C...” (“Laetitia, complainant against Gilbert C…”) and “C... accusé de viol, il dément” (“C…accused of rape, he denies it”).  Following the broadcast, the...

Private copying constitutes a well-known exception to copyright under Article L 122-5-2 of the Intellectual Property Code (which regulates authors’ rights) and Article L 211-3-2 (which regulates neighbouring rights). Authors of works that are copied in a non-commercial and non-professional context are entitled to compensatory remuneration, which is paid at source and collected directly from manufacturers and importers of digital media and recording devices used for copying. These companies add the tax to the purchase price paid by consumers. The Private Copying Committee, created under Article...

Having received an official warning from the French national audiovisual regulatory authority (Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel – CSA) in June 2018 after broadcasting a news report, RT France, the French-language outlet of the Russian international news channel RT, requested the retraction of the warning – which demanded that it respect its agreement with the CSA – on the grounds that the CSA had abused its powers. Article 2-3-6 of the channel’s agreement with the CSA (in the version applicable at the time) states: “The honesty requirement applies to...

Canal Plus, which began broadcasting the programme “Le Zapping” in 1989, announced on 27 June 2016 that it would be pulling the plug on the programme after a total of 27 years on the air. Seven months later, France Télévisions launched “Vu”, a programme based on a series of very short clips from French television programmes. The programme was co-produced by the former producer of the Canal Plus programme, who had worked on “Le Zapping” from day one and had been dismissed by the pay-TV channel a few months before the programme was taken off the air. After writing to France Télévisions, warning it...

In 2016, during its “Envoyé Spécial” programme, France Télévisions broadcast a report on the crisis in milk production entitled “Sérieusement?! Lactalis: le beurre et l’argent du beurre” (“Really?! Lactalis – having its cake and eating it”). The CEO of Lactalis claimed that a sequence in the report mentioned the name of his holiday home, giving its exact location and showing aerial views of the property. Invoking invasion of privacy, he brought a claim against France Télévisions on the basis of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 9 of the French Civil Code, seeking...