THE TELEGRAPH: A French journalist who leaked footage of Nicolas Sarkozy reprimanding a "rude" television studio worker is facing five years in jail.
Augustin Scalbert, who works for the news website Rue89.fr, was charged with receiving stolen goods.
The allegations concern off-air clips of the French president accusing a technician of not having any manners, and poking fun at another journalist.
As he is waiting to appear on an evening bulletin, he begins to mock those around him. He says "Hello" to a technician fitting a microphone, but the man does not reply and Mr Sarkozy says: "When you're invited, you have the right for people to say hello to you.
"Otherwise we might as well be at a street rally - it's unbelievable!'"
Mr Sarkozy then asks one of the bulletin's journalists, Gilles Leclerc, why he had not been seen on-screen for months suggesting he was being kept "in reserve - in a cupboard".
The footage has already been seen millions of times on video-sharing websites. >>> Peter Allen in Paris | Tuesday, June 15, 2010
