Friday, October 20, 2006

Al-Dura case - no clarity

There seems to be no analysis yet of the verdict in the al-Dura case against Philippe Karsenty and in favour of France2. It does seem to be an extraordinary ruling made even more puzzling by the derisory damages awarded.

If Karsenty truly slandered France2, then surely the damages should reflect the harm done to its reputation. The al-Dura footage is historically of enormous importance and France2's part in transmitting it to the world is therefore of commensurate importance. Someone imputing dishonesty on the part of France2 in such an affair should be taken to the cleaners. But he wasn't. The cases presented in court seemed to lead to only one conclusion, just as the cases presented by various investigators do. Yet...? France is so sad these days.

Go to Augean Stables for many links, none of which, however, provide much clarity.The Camera report on the Al-Dura film and Richard Landes' excellent site entirely devoted to it. I posted on it here. The French text of the ruling is here. Unfortunately, my French is not up to it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Go to Augean Stables for many links, none of which, however, provide much clarity."

The "al-durah-update-from-ellen-horowitz"
section of Augean Stables indeed has links that are pretty lame, but Augean Stables itself -- run by the same Richard Landes who runs SecondDraft.org -- is phenomenal in discussing the case.

NoolaBeulah said...

I was referring only to the Ellen Horowitz post, Phil. And I really didn't mean to be critical; I was just saying that no good explanation was yet available for the judge's decision.

You're quite right. Augean Stables and Second Draft are fantastic sources of information. I had posted links to them when I wrote the first time about this trial. Maybe it would have been a help to do that this time as well.