Paris - A French woman was convicted on Wednesday of defamation
over two tweets that launched France's equivalent of the #MeToo
hashtag, broadcaster FranceInfo and other media reported.
Journalist Sandra Muller was ordered to pay former television station
boss Eric Brion 15 000 euros compensation and 5 000
euros in legal costs for her tweets accusing him of harassment,
FranceInfo reported.
In her October 2017 tweets, published in the wake of high-profile
sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey
Weinstein, Muller called on women to name harassers with details of
their acts.
The hashtag she created – #balancetonporc, literally meaning "expose
your pig" – went viral as many women recounted experiences of
harassment.
President Emmanuel Macron later announced a series of measures
against harassment and in favour of gender equality.
Brion last year admitted to Europe1 radio that he had made sexual
comments to Muller on one occasion during a night out, but denied
harassing her and said they had no professional relationship.
FranceInfo quoted Muller's lawyer, Patrick Szpiner, as saying that
the verdict was "eccentric" and "not of this time," and that his
client would appeal.
"If you wanted women to shut up, you wouldn't go about it any
differently," the broadcaster quoted him as saying.
But Brion's lawyer, Marie Burguburu, hailed it as a "modern and
particularly courageous decision" that would "change the whole
internet."
The judges "for the first time have said that the approach that
consists of denouncing people on social media can be condemned,"
Burguburu told broadcaster BFMTV.