Can Paris or any other city really sue a TV station – even if it is Fox News?
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Version 0 of 1. Fans of irony would applaud. “The image of Paris has been prejudiced, and the honour of Paris has been prejudiced,” Anne Hidalgo, mayor of the French capital, told CNN Tuesday. She has threatened to sue Fox News for depictions of her city as having “no-go zones” ruled by Islamic fundamentalists. The irony, of course, relates to a civic leader threatening the media with a lawsuit shortly after 1.5 million Parisians took to the streets in defense of freedom of speech following the Charlie Hebdo attacks. But leaving that aside, can a city really sue for defamation? Technically, Paris certainly can. City halls, councils or state-owned companies are free to bring an action in defamation before the French courts. “That’s not an issue under French law,” says Avi Bitton, a member of the Paris bar. On Wednesday, Paris’s deputy mayor, Patrick Klugman, told the BBC his boss was “definitely serious” about her intention to sue Fox. Nevertheless, lawyers are sceptical about whether such an action has any hopes of success. “Libelling cities is one of the great perks of living in a free society,” declared the Washington Post this week. “I’ve never heard of a municipality bringing a libel claim before,” lawyer Jeffrey Pyle told the paper. He points out that defamation statements must concern an identifiable person, group or company. “If a city could bring a libel claim, we would be in a lot of trouble indeed ... especially when they’re facing each other in the Super Bowl.” It would certainly be difficult. French lawyers agree that there would be a series of not inconsiderable hurdles for the mayor’s office to overcome. Technicalities abound, says Bitton. “Defendants can very easily find irregularities allowing the complaint to be dismissed on procedural grounds, as opposed to the merits of the case,” he says. Fox could also argue that the statements, if not necessarily accurate, were at least made in good faith. French courts make a distinction between statements of fact and opinion. “Fox News might well say it is not really a fact that there are ‘no-go zones’, more an opinion, and as such that’s quite subjective. You might well say some districts are, others might say not.” Even if a city was successful - and Bitton can’t think of a precedent - the damages would likely be very small. “It is quite common here for claimants to asks for hundreds of thousands of euros. That is all part of the game. But under French case law, damages against the media are very moderate. For example, if a newspaper discloses the fact that a celebrity is gay when their sexuality is not public information, damages might only be somewhere between €10,000-20,000.” “It is going to be a difficult action,” agrees Rémi Kleiman, a partner with the law firm Eversheds Paris. “The courts will alway consider freedom of the press as the prevailing principle.” What are the chances of success? “Technically possible, but highly unlikely,” says Bitton. In the UK, even those odds don’t exist. Any city trying to sue for defamation would find its action to be a non-starter. “I am not aware of any city trying to bring a defamation claim,” says Jeremy Clarke-Williams, a libel partner at Slater & Gordon. Defamation is “a purely personal action”. This means it’s perfectly possible for the publishing phenomenon Crap Towns to give its coveted No 1 spot to London (beating Bradford and Chipping Norton, in second and third) without fear of reprisal. Anyone is equally free to call the inhabitants of Mayfair “virtually without exception the biggest shower of needy, self-important bumwipes in London, with a self-pity complex and misplaced sense of entitlement to match” and not lose a moment’s sleep. Historically, a local governmental corporation in the UK had a “governing” reputation, which meant it could be protected by the law of defamation. All that ended in 1993, when Derbyshire County Council took on Times Newspapers in the House of Lords and lost. “This decision was largely based on the probable ‘chilling effect’ on free speech of granting a right of action,” says Clarke-Williams. The case concerned allegations regarding the “governmental and administrative functions” of Derbyshire council. “Although it could be said that the Fox story did not fall into that category, I doubt that it would persuade a court that such an action should be permitted to run.” “Paris - or any city - doesn’t have ‘feelings’,” says Clarke-Williams. “So even if a defamation claim was possible, it would have to show that the Fox News comments had damaged it financially. That would be a complex task.” Instead, he suggests that Paris demand the “Boris Johnson/Liverpool solution”: “The executives of Fox need to go shame-faced to Paris and receive a public dressing down from the mayor on nationwide TV.” |