A bombshell 2023 TV investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by French actor Gérard Depardieu was being scrutinized by judges in Paris on Thursday following allegations by the actor that footage in a key segment was manipulated.
The 54-minute report by state broadcaster channel France 2’s investigative show Complément d’Enquête, entitled “The fall of the ogre”, contributed to taking the shine off Depardieu’s public image, when it was first broadcast in early December, 2023.
One section of the show focused on Depardieu’s behavior during a trip to North Korea in 2018, organized by director Yann Moix with the aim of making a film inspired by their experiences, although the work never came to fruition.
The court case focuses on a scene in which Depardieu is heard making sexually inappropriate comments about a young girl on a pony during a trip to a riding stable.
Depardieu and Moix, who are represented by the former’s lawyer Jérémie Assous, contest the actor was talking about the girl, and that rather his comments were directed at an adult woman off-screen and said within the context of a fiction work they were developing but never saw the light of day.
Assous is suing Paris-based production company Hikari, which oversaw the making of the show, for “illegal editing”. The production company and journalists who worked on the investigation accuse Depardieu and Moix of slander.
A lawyer for France 2 parent network France Télévisions said in a statement to AFP ahead of the hearing: “France Télévisions denies any manipulation or illicit editing by Complément d’Enquête“.
Previously, a bailiff report commissioned by France Télévisions, looking at all the footage from which the clip was cut, came out in favor of the broadcaster in its findings, released in October 2024, saying there was no evidence of manipulation.
Paris-based Freedom of Information NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the trial saying it posed “a major threat – if not a downright violation – to press freedom.”
The body called on the Paris Correctional Court examining the case to refrain from setting a precedent for the criminalisation of editing, and suggested the plaintiff’s methods were akin to a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP).
“Describing the sequence in question as ‘illegal editing’ when it has been declared legal by several expert reports and a court bailiff amounts to criminalising a standard journalistic practice,” said the body.
“The attack on press freedom in the Depardieu case could open the door to interpretations of what is and is not permitted in journalistic reporting, and push news professionals to self-censor when it comes to certain sensitive subjects for fear of prosecution,” it continued.
“Investigative journalism is not a crime — it’s up to the Paris Correctional Court to issue this reminder and not set an irreversible precedent for press freedom.”
The broadcast of the Complément d’Enquête show, followed in the wake of an in-depth report by news website Médiapart, detailing allegations against Depardieu by 13 women going back decades, which in turn prompted further accusations.
The France 2 show was seen as accelerating Depardieu’s public fall from grace, with the backlash against the actor dividing the French film industry at the time.
Depardieu has since been found guilty of sexual assault in a case related to his treatment of two women on the set of Jean Becker’s The Green Shutters in 2021, for which he was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
In September, a French judge ordered Depardieu stand trial in a criminal court on charges of rape related to accusations by actress Charlotte Arnould.
Depardieu has denied all the accusations against him.
