Resumen de France: : Broadcasting the image of a person involved in a debate of general interest is lawful
The Court of Cassation has delivered a judgment which deserves reporting, since it concerns the scope of the transfer to the producer of a documentary of the right to use a person’s image by someone who has been interviewed. In the present case, the director of a review had granted a film interview to the producer of a documentary entitled “La vérité est ailleurs ou la véritable histoire des protocoles des sages de Sion” (‘the truth is elsewhere, or the true story of the Protocoles des Sages de Sion’), co-produced by and broadcast on the channel Arte. The purpose of the interview was to ascertain the director’s position on the work entitled “Protocoles des Sages de Sion”, published in the review. The person concerned had signed a “letter authorising use of image” according to which no shots of the interview could be broadcast without his first having viewed the sequences retained when the broadcast was edited. Since the documentary had been broadcast without this having been done, the person concerned had the production companies summoned by the courts and ordered payment of reparation for the prejudice suffered as a result of failure to observe right to control the use of his image, for which he claimed 10 000 euros in damages.
