Recalling what the right of response entails
The right of response must be limited to what is necessary to protect the reputation and rights of others.
In a summary injunction order, the Paris District Court recalled, on 20 October 2008, that the calling into question of a person, in this specific case a journalist, must be proportionate to that of the person requesting publication of his response.
In this specific case, the publisher had refused to publish the right of response in claiming that in so doing it would be harmful to the honor, consideration and reputation of the magazine's journalist. Yet the judge considered that the plaintiff was not putting into question the actual person of the journalist.
The judge therefore ordered the publisher as well as the magazine to publish the right of response within 15 days of signature of the decision, subject to a fine of €5,000 per day of delay.
Anne-Katel Martineau,
Attorney- Member of the Paris Bar