Financial Times: French media could face fines or legal action for showing IMF chief in handcuffs

France’s television regulator has warned broadcasters to exercise greater caution in showing images of people facing criminal procedures, after public criticism over photographs of the International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn being led away to face charges of attempted rape in New York, according to the Financial Times.

It reports: "Without mentioning Mr Strauss-Kahn’s name, the Higher Audiovisual Council said such images could “violate the right to personal dignity”. It said broadcasting such images, an act illegal in France since 2000, would be punished by a fine and called for “the greatest restraint in diffusing images of people under criminal investigation.

"Lawyers representing Mr Strauss-Kahn in France are weighing whether to sue French media over images showing the IMF boss being led by police on a “perp walk”, although some websites have withdrawn the offending photos."

• Pic: New York Daily News, unfettered by restrictions, splashes on "perp walk."

More DSK contempt-busters from New York Post

The New York Post in print and online is running stories on sex charges against IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn ahead of his trial in a way that would land an editor in jail over here.

The Post story starts: "France's leading presidential candidate may have pounced on a Manhattan hotel maid -- but she wanted it, his lawyer asserted in court yesterday, hinting at what could be an explosive defense."

It also claims:"Disturbing information also emerged about Strauss-Kahn's behavior after he left the hotel -- including his coolly having lunch with his daughter, who lives in Manhattan, at a restaurant about a half-hour after the alleged attack."

In contrast, John Lichfield, writing in the Independent today, says the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn reveals an uncomfortable truth about the disfunctional relationship between French politics, privacy laws and the press.

He writes: "The French media and French justice systems have an extravagant definition of the extents of "privacy" for public figures. Consensual extramarital affairs are one thing. Sexual harassment, bordering on assault is another.The British media may be guilty of being too prurient about the private activities of politicians; the French media is too supine."

New York press shows contempt for IMF chief

The New York papers are continuing to give IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, now in custody on charges of sexual assault, the kind of coverage that would risk landing them in court in the UK for contempt for prejudicing a trial.

It's as if the papers have adopted the persona of the New York detective 'Popeye' Doyle and his hatred of haughty French criminal Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) in the film The French Connection in their attitude to Strauss-Kahn.

'Sleazy Money': NY Post on arrest of IMF chief

This is how the New York Post covered the arrest of the International Monetry Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York on sex charges.

The intro says: "The IMF chief who allegedly sodomized a Manhattan hotel maid proved the height of pompous arrogance yesterday, throwing a fit over a battle on his bail — which left him parked on a wooden bench in an East Harlem station house the whole day, sources said.

"Leading French presidential contender and accused sex attacker Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, was finally led out of the NYPD’s Special Victims Unit at around 11 p.m. in handcuffs, scowling and red-faced. Sporting a long navy-blue coat and an open collar, he refused to acknowledge reporters as he was placed in the back of a police car and whisked off to Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn."

Elsewhere in the story the IMF boss is referred to as "an aging lothario" and a "whiny fat cat".

At the risk of stating the bleedin' obvious, the US doesn't have the same contempt laws as the UK.

Also, it is not every day that the NY Post and Financial Times lead on the same story.