Paris mayor vows to sue Fox News over false reports of Muslim 'no-go' zones
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. Frederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock.com
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo vowed to sue Fox News for erroneously reporting that parts of the French capital are considered “no-go” zones that are off-limits to non-Muslims.
Hidalgo, in an interview with CNN Tuesday, said the network had “insulted” the city.
“When we’re insulted, and when we’ve had an image, then I’ll think we’ll have to sue, I think we’ll have to go to court, in order to have these words removed,” Hidalgo said. “The image of Paris has been prejudiced, and the honor of Paris has been prejudiced.”
Fox News has since apologized for the reports, which have been widely ridiculed in the media, both here and abroad.
But one Fox News executive called the threatened suit “misplaced.”
CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, citing the network’s embarrassment over the reports and its subsequent apologies, said it shows the system works. “The courts don’t need to get involved here,” he said.
Other legal experts said the prospects for such a suit in the U.S. courts are dim.
“A claim like this would never succeed in a United States court because there’s no such thing as defamation” of a city, said Jeff Hermes, deputy director of the Media Law Resource Center, a membership association of media providers of which Fox News is a member.
A lawsuit in a French court would also be problematic, CNN reported. The French justice system would have limited leverage since Fox News has a limited presence there.
