France's highest court yesterday overturned the acquittal of a commentator who accused a TV journalist of fabricating a report on the killing of a Palestinian child in Gaza 11 years ago.
The judgment is a victory for Charles Enderlin, a French-Israeli reporter for the state-run France 2 channel.
But it is not the end of a bitter and protracted war about media honesty that has raged since Mr Enderlin's report caused widespread outrage early in the second intifada in autumn 2000.
Mohammed Al Dura, the 12-year-old boy said in the report to have been killed by Israeli gunfire, was hailed as a martyr by those sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
But some French media figures have suggested the report was at least too ready to conclude that the fatal shots were fired by Israeli soldiers. Pro-Israeli interests have gone further, repeatedly accusing Mr Enderlin of faking the story, either by falsely attributing the boy's death to Israeli rather than Palestinian forces or, at worst, broadcasting a fake shooting.
Philippe Karsenty, a French Jew who runs Media Ratings, which scrutinises news outlets for signs of bias, has been among the most vociferous in denouncing Mr Enderlin's report.
The verdict of the court of cassation in Paris yesterday sets aside his acquittal, on appeal, of defaming Mr Enderlin and France 2. He had originally been fined €1,000 (Dh4,927) and will now have to stand trial again.
Mr Karsenty believes France 2's Palestinian cameraman, Talal Abu Rahma, staged the scene, sent the film to Mr Enderlin, the France 2 Jerusalem correspondent, who was not present to witness the events first-hand, and told him the child had been killed.
Mr Enderlin, he alleges, recorded a voice-over and broadcast his report without independent verification of its authenticity.
"There is nothing in the film that proves that Al Dura was shot to death, or shot at all in this incident," Mr Karsenty says.
The boy's death has become confused by claim and counter-claim and successive defamation actions.
The film - only 59 seconds were broadcast by France 2 - showed the boy cradled by his father as they sought shelter beside a concrete cylinder, apparently as Israeli and Palestinian security forces exchanged fire.
The boy is at first seen crying, while his father waves an arm as they appear to be caught up in the crossfire, but later appears slumped over his injured father's legs.
Israel at first accepted that members of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had accidentally killed the boy in crossfire but later cast doubt on this explanation. In 2007, it formally retracted any admission of responsibility.
Some critics of the film have said no one could be sure who fired the bullets that killed young Mohammed. But others, including a senior Israeli information officer, said the scene was staged by Palestinians to discredit Israel.
Mr Enderlin said in an interview with the France 24 network, on publication of a book about the affair, Un Enfant Est Mort (A Child Has Died), in 2010 that he absolutely stood by his original version of the shooting.
He said inquires, even in Israel, had shown his cameraman to have been, in the words of one security official, "white as snow" without hint of involvement in any organisation.
He presented Talal Abu Rahma as an experienced professional.
"You won't have news, newspapers or TV documentaries without using correspondents. Everybody uses correspondents. France 2 has correspondents. I am a correspondent. Our cameraman is Palestinian as I am French and Jewish," said Mr Enderlin. "And he is first of all a journalist doing his job."
The reporter said he had endured "difficulties on and off" as a consequence of challenges to his integrity but thought these would have been much more serious had he not been a Jew who could hardly be labelled antisemitic.
When the French appeal court quashed Mr Karsenty's defamation conviction in 2008, it accepted that the offending remarks undoubtedly affected the "honour and reputation" of media professionals but supported the defendant's "good faith" and his right to express views that did not "exceed the limits of freedom of expression".
France's prosecutor general had recommended dismissal of the appeal by Mr Enderlin and France 2, arguing the lower court's decision was correctly based.
In a separate French defamation action this month, the appeal court cleared Yehuda David, an Israeli surgeon who had operated on Mohammed's father, for saying in an interview and his injuries were suffered before the 2000 incident.
A French journalists' union, SNJ-CGT, anticipating yesterday's verdict, said it was time for "this farce to cease and for our colleague finally to be cleared of all suspicion. Our colleague has had one fault: that of doing his job honestly and dealing fully with information, even if it upsets some circles close to the Israeli government."
