Sarkozy Supporters Attack French Journalists
Source: New York Times
May 4, 2012, 2:52 pm
Sarkozy Supporters Attack French Journalists
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
President Nicolas Sarkozy, considered media savvy and even preoccupied with press attention, appears to have soured on the news media in the waning weeks of his re-election campaign in France, lashing out on Friday at what he described as “intolerance and bias” in favor of his Socialist opponent, François Hollande.
Mr. Sarkozy was responding to an episode on Thursday in which his supporters menaced a pair of television journalists from BFM TV during a live broadcast from a rally in Mediterranean coastal town of Toulon. One of the journalists, Ruth Elkrief, said in an interview with Agence France-Presse that at least two bottles filled with water had been thrown, and one hit her colleague, Thierry Arnaud, in the face.
“I don’t know what happened, but as I saw Ruth Elkrief say on the television, I think that it was not too bad,” Mr. Sarkozy said on Europe 1 radio, referring to her comments immediately following the altercation on Thursday. “If someone said something to her, I am sorry.”
While adding that he would “condemn any person who attacks a journalist verbally or physically,” he added, referring to the media, that he could “understand the attitude of those people who are exasperated by a form of intolerance and bias.”
Read more: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/sarkozy-supporters-attack-french-journalists/
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