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Charlie Hebdo Paris Legal

Paris hostages sue TV media over 'dangerous' live coverage

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By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

April 4, 2015 | 2 min read

Six people who hid in a supermarket refrigerator during January’s Islamist attack in Paris have sued French TV media for live broadcasting the location of their hideout during the siege.

The lawyer representing the group, Patrick Klugman, said the images broadcast from the scene when gunman Amedy Coulibaly stormed into the Hyper Cacher Jewish supermarket, killing four and taking others hostage, "lacked the most basic precautions”, according to a report in The Guardian.

Klugman focussed his criticism on French 24-hour news channel BFMTV, which revealed live on air that the six hostages – including a three-year-old child and a one-month-old baby – were hiding from Coulibaly in the cold room.

"The working methods of media in real time in this type of situation were tantamount to goading someone to commit a crime," Klugman told Agence France Presse (AFP).

He added that the lives of those hiding “could have been at risk if Coulibaly had been aware in real time what BFMTV was broadcasting.”

The supermarket siege took place on 9 January, two days after Cherif and Said Kouachi shot 12 people at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The lawsuit charges media outlets with endangering the lives of others by deliberately ignoring security protocols, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison and €15,000 (£11,000) fine.

Charlie Hebdo Paris Legal

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