The woman who started France’s campaign to encourage women to expose their sexual harassers has appeared in court over allegations of defamation.<\/p>\n
Sandra Muller is being sued by Eric Brion, who she named when she created the “#balancetonporc” hashtag.<\/p>\n
The TV executive says he flirted with Ms Muller inappropriately on a single occasion, but his portrayal as a predator has ruined his career.<\/p>\n
He is seeking \u20ac50,000 ($55,000, \u00a344,000) in damages.<\/p>\n
Mr Brion is also looking for another \u20ac15,000 in legal fees and the deletion of the tweet which named him.<\/p>\n
The hearing on Wednesday attracted widespread attention in France, where sexual harassment is believed to be commonplace – but which has also seen a backlash to the #balancetonporc” (“rat on your pig”) movement.<\/p>\n
At the hearing, Mr Brion’s legal team said that while he had apologised for his clumsy or inappropriate flirtation, he had “never admitted to harassing anyone”.<\/p>\n
“He said that one evening he tried to flirt with Sandra Muller as he liked her,” his lawyer Marie Burguburu told the court. “This is his right to flirt,” she added.<\/p>\n
Ms Muller, who had travelled from the United States, where she is based, to attend the session, said she had “started a movement that spread through all levels of society”.<\/p>\n
The journalist said she wanted to see that “sexist insults, whatever they are, are finally taken seriously”.<\/p>\n
When she received the court summons in January, she expressed surprise that despite his apology, Mr Brion “changed his strategy and decided, against all decency, to take me to court”.<\/p>\n
She vowed she would “fight to the end” and said she hoped the trial would be “an opportunity to hold a real debate on ways to fight against sexual harassment”.<\/p>\n
In October 2017, Ms Muller tweeted: “#balancetonporc! You too can recount by giving the name and details of a sexual harassment you have known in your job”.<\/p>\n
A few hours later, she followed up with: “You have big breasts. You are my type of woman. I will make you orgasm all night” and Eric Brion’s name and position.<\/p>\n
But Mr Brion says he had never worked with Ms Muller in any capacity; that he had apologised for his words, and not pursued it after he was rejected.<\/p>\n
The resulting social media campaign behind the hashtag, however, spread Mr Brion’s name far and wide, and in December that year, he wrote a response in French newspaper Le Monde.<\/p>\n
He said he had made his “inappropriate remarks” at a cocktail party late in the evening, “but only once” – and said he was not trying to excuse his actions.<\/p>\n
But Mr Brion said Ms Muller had implied the two had some sort of working relationship in which harassment took place.<\/p>\n
He suggested she had been deliberately vague, in a “conflation of heavy-handed flirting and sexual harassment in the workplace”.<\/p>\n
As a result, he said it had become extremely difficult to find work.<\/p>\n
Ms Muller’s lawyer Francis Szpiner, however, told the court: “If you do not feel that when a man stands in front of you and makes you such a proposal, it’s offensive, I’m sorry for you, but today a majority of women and men think it is.”<\/p>\n
“If this hashtag has been successful it’s because thousands of women have recognized themselves [in it],” he added,\u00a0in remarks reported by France’s 20 Minutes programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n Judgement in the case is due in September.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"