France: TV Reports on Hostage Taking Prompt Lawsuit and an Investigation

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/world/europe/france-tv-reports-on-hostage-taking-prompt-lawsuit-and-an-investigation.html

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Families of the hostages held by a gunman who killed four people in a kosher supermarket in Paris in January are suing a French broadcaster over its live coverage of the attack, saying it endangered the hostages’ lives, and prosecutors are considering criminal charges as well. Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, said Friday that a preliminary investigation had been opened into coverage by the broadcaster, BFM, on possible charges of “putting others’ lives in danger.” During the hostage standoff at the Hyper Cacher market on Jan. 9, BFM and other TV and radio broadcasters revealed that several shoppers were hiding in the basement of the market, a fact that was apparently unknown to the gunman, Amedy Coulibaly. France’s broadcast watchdog reprimanded BFM and several other stations for their coverage of the hostage taking and the attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo two days earlier. BFM had no comment. Patrick Klugman, a lawyer for the families, said they were not seeking financial damages, but want the news media to be held responsible and to take steps to prevent a repeat of such coverage. “It’s a miracle that there weren’t other deaths,” he said.