A high-profile French journalist was acquitted on Friday of charges of inciting racial hatred in a book on the Rwandan genocide, in what his lawyer hailed as a victory for free speech.
Pierre Pean’s book “Noires fureurs, blancs menteurs (Black Furies, White Liars) described ethnic Tutsis as prone to lying and deceit, prompting rights group SOS Racisme to file a civil complaint, backed by France’s state attorney.
But a Paris court ruled that Pean’s description of a “culture of lies and deceit, “as brutal as it may seem, especially for victims of a genocide, cannot be seen as a specific accusation aimed at discrediting all Tutsis.
The court noted that the 70-year-old author had accused all Rwandans, including ethnic Hutus, of a propensity for lying, “without ever denying the reality of the genocide.
And while Pean’s writings “could legitimately offend those he targets, it said they “contained no call for discrimination, hatred or violence liable to provoke a rejection or negative reaction towards Tutsis.
Publisher Claude Durand, who released the book in November 2005, was also cleared of all charges, although the court turned down a request for damages to Pean, saying he had “exposed himself to the lawsuit.
Pean’s lawyer Florence Bourg described the ruling as “a victory for freedom of expression, of real debate on a very difficult subject.
She said the journalist had “attacked a cultural practice, not a race. The court fully understood that.
SOS Racisme, which accused Pean of reproducing in his book some of the “prejudices in the genocidal ideology that led to the slaughter of around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, said it would appeal the ruling.
In his book, Pean wrote: “Investigating Rwanda is almost an impossible task given that lies and deceit have been elevated to an art form.
“The first Europeans who had prolonged contact with the Tutsis observed that they were trained in lying, he wrote.
Pean broke down in tears at one point in his trial in September, after a Jewish witness likened his work to Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf and compared him to convicted French Holocaust-denier, Robert Faurisson.
The author of bestsellers on former presidents Francois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, Pean had said he considered the court case to be part of a smear campaign orchestrated by the Rwandan government.
Some 30 historians, experts and politicians including former French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine testified at the trial. -AFP
