French Bar Council Reports TV Channel to Media Watchdog Over Lawyer Portrayal

Yassine Bouzrou is none other than the criminal lawyer who has been in charge, since Tuesday, of the defense of Piotr Pavlenski, indicted for his involvement in the dissemination of Benjamin Griveaux’s intimate videos.

The chronicle, the subject of denunciation, both by the national bar association and by Me Bouzrou, was devoted in its first part to the youth of the lawyer. "Born into an extremely modest Moroccan family", Yassine Bouzrou would have "gone through school troubles, changing schools three times between college and high school". The portrait is illustrated by an animation showing a character with Me Bouzrou’s face, wearing a dunce cap. It was relayed thousands of times on Twitter, reports lemonde.fr.

As for the second part of the chronicle, it focused on the beginning of the criminal lawyer’s career, his discovery of major trials alongside two Parisian bar leaders, Jean-Yves Liénart and Yves Le Borgne, as well as his most publicized cases such as the cases of police violence and the defense of Tariq Ramadan. "He quickly becomes known as the lawyer who lets nothing pass," says the LCI journalist. "Thank you to the graphics department who spoiled us this afternoon," the host of the show quips at the end of the chronicle.

Faced with the comments of shocked people who flooded the web, the channel apologized during the show. From the start of the broadcast, at 2 p.m., the presenter, Valentine Desjeunes, apologized for the form, the illustrations that would have been "clumsy and may have seemed disrespectful".

She reassured that the intention was not to harm, but to present the laudatory and singular career of a lawyer in the spotlight at the moment. "So once again, the form was not right, we wanted to tell you that today," she said. A few hours before these apologies, the director of the LCI editorial staff, Valérie Nataf, had reacted, presenting apologies "to all those who are outraged by the portrait made of the lawyer on the channel".

"A lawyer is not defined only by his academic background, his social or family origin. The robe screens all that. Too bad the screen and those who animate it forget it," commented Christiane Féral-Schuhl, announcing that she wanted to seize the CSA.

The Paris Bar has not confirmed to Le Monde that it has seized the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel, but had explained in a tweet that it was "joining the CNB in its approach".