A win for French justice

One good development today (thanks to Jihad Watch), in a long and tortured tale I'll try to make short and sweet.

A French judge just ruled that media watchdog Philippe Karsenty did not libel French television channel 2 when he accused them of broadcasting 'pure fiction' by filming and transmitting the alleged death of Muhammed Al-Dura. This is the young Palestinian boy whose 'death' from Israeli bullets made him into the icon of the 2000 Intifada - inflaming Muslim passions against Israelis, Jews, Crusades, etc., and wreaking untold havoc. Karsenty believes (as do other independent observers) that the entire episode was staged. Israel Defense Force investigators concluded that if the boy had been hit, it was most likely by Palestinian rather than Israeli fire.

France 2 will appeal this verdict, so the story isn't over. Nor to my knowledge has the French court ruled on the underlying question of whether the incident was faked. When challenged to submit their outtakes to the court, France 2 reported that key segments were unfortunately missing.