Karsenty's Al-Durah Defamation Acquittal Overturned on Technicality -- Revealing Problems In the Media and French Legal System

On Wednesday, a French court found Philippe Karsenty guilty of defamation when he claimed that France 2's Charles Enderlin's video of the death of Mohammed Al Durah, was inaccurate and the death of the boy a hoax.

Typical of the media reporting of the case is the Associated Press report Frenchman convicted of defamation for saying film showing Palestinian boy’s death was faked:

In a report issued in 2004, Philippe Karsenty said the footage was orchestrated and there was no proof that the boy had been killed.

France-2 sued for defamation, and after a long legal battle, a Paris court fined Karsenty 7,000 euros Wednesday. He called the verdict “outrageous.”

The sloppiness of AP report is illustrated by the way it omits the fact that in 2008, Karsenty was actually acquitted of the charge of defamation.