Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer was continued in defamation by the Russian news channel after having pointed out, in 2018, an “manipulation of information” and “falsifications.
By (with AFP)
continued in defamation by the television channel owned by the Russian State, RT France (ex-Russia Today), for having mentioned an “manipulation of information” and “falsifications”, The researcher Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer was released on Friday, May 27, by the judicial court of Paris.
Director of the Strategic Research Institute of the Military School (IRSEM), which belongs to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, Mr. Jeangène Vilmer was targeted for five messages published on the Twitter social network in September 2018. In the One Messages, he was targeting the two Russian state media RT and Sputnik, prohibited from broadcasting in the European Union since March 2: “RT and Sputnik (…) frequently invent facts, falsify documents, translations or interviews “. The researcher cited as an example the “falsification” of the translation of a report on Syria, object of A formal notice of the CSA in June 2018.
If three of the five tweets present a “defamatory” character, the Paris court noted that “disinformation” constituted “a subject of general interest”, that the researcher had not shown ” Personal animosity “, and that he had a” sufficient factual base allowing him to legitimately believe in what he wrote “. The lawyers of the IRSEM researcher had provided, in support, 70 examples where the channels of the RT group had, according to them, showed disinformation.
no “will to deceive the viewer”, according to RT France
During the hearing held on March 17, Jean-Baptiste Jeangene Vilmer had explained that the tweets incriminated were part of a “thread” written in response to the “fire rolling of criticism” of the media and Russian authorities after the publication of the report “Manipulations of information. A challenge for our democracies” , of which he is the co-author. The researcher had described his 2018 remarks as “consensuals” and denounced “judicial intimidation” practiced, according to him, by this chain.
RT France’s lawyer, who had no representative at the hearing, had argued in March the “technical error” for the incriminated and denied report “will to deceive the viewer”. In conclusion of the session, the prosecution had not requested a condemnation, considering that the incriminated remarks were “not attacking freedom of expression”, because they “have] been part of a Debate of general interest “.
The court, on the other hand, refused the request for damages of the researcher, who believed that the complaint of RT France was a “abusive procedure”.