Leading French magazine Le Point was fined 1,500 euros (HK$16,000) yesterday by a court for slurring the country’s ethnic Chinese community as stingy, work-obsessed tax dodgers.
The ruling followed a legal complaint filed by prominent anti-racism group SOS Racisme over an article published on August 23, 2012 entitled “The Devious Success of the Chinese in France”.
Le Point chief Franz-Olivier Giesbert had defended the article as a humorous piece of writing that had been misconstrued.
A boxed text accompanying the article listed the “Five Commandments of the Chinese businessman”.
These included: “Thou shalt work 80 hours a week”, “Thou shalt sleep in thy shop” and “Thou shalt not pay taxes.”
The court said three of the points were defamatory and rejected Giesbert’s plea that the piece was humorous.
