France Télévisions condemned to compensate “the man in underwear and a shovel” – The HuffPost

IROZ GAIZKA VIA AFP

JUSTICE – France Télévisions was ordered this Wednesday, September 15 by the court of Dax to pay 10,000 euros in damages to a hunter landais become in spite of himself a social media star after appearing in underwear, armed with a shovel, in a 2015 report.

“This judgment brings the law into conformity with morality by recognizing this intolerable infringement of the right to image” by Jean-Marc Dutouya, his defender, Me Frédéric Dutin, told AFP.

On November 9, 2015, half a dozen members of the Bird protection league (LPO), including its president Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, had entered a field in the village of Audon (Landes) to destroy several matoles (small bird traps) in order to denounce the poaching of finches, a protected species.

A hijacked photo

During this action, regular in the Landes this season, activists and journalists were attacked by the owners, the Dutouya. The altercation, between insults, threats, pushes and shovels, had lasted several minutes until the arrival of the gendarmes. The octogenarian mother of Jean-Marc Dutouya had been jostled. Four journalists’ vehicles had flat tires.

In July 2018, Jean-Marc Dutouya was sentenced on appeal to a fine of 400 euros for violence with a weapon. In the meantime, he had become in spite of himself a star of social networks, where his photo in his underwear and T-shirt, armed with a shovel, had been the object ofcountless diversions.

“Can a man at home in his garden be handed over anyhow? Justice said no ”, welcomed Me Frédéric Dutin, specifying that his client, who claimed 200,000 euros damage, was “extremely satisfied”.

France Televisions, who did not react at first, will also have to pay 5,000 euros in procedural costs and blur the images of the hunter, according to Me Frédéric Dutin.

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