French TV channels scramble to apologize after airing Albanian protests as Paris and Lyon

PARIS (AP) — Two French news channels backpedaled and apologized this weekend after they misidentified images of protests in Albania as demonstrations taking place in France.

CNEWS made the mix-up first on Saturday, as a mass march was getting underway peacefully in southern Paris — the largest of nearly 300 demonstrations nationwide over school funding and soaring living costs that together drew hundreds of thousands of people.

But images that CNEWS showed of people gathered in protest on a street, some of them clapping and one waving a red flag, were shot not at Paris’ Porte d’Italie, as labelled by the broadcaster, but in Tirana, the Albanian capital that was among multiple locations in Europe where demonstrations took place on Saturday.

Some of the people shown had covered their faces with ski goggles and masks. A commentator speaking over the CNEWS broadcast alleged they were “behaving like future vandals, like future rioters,” suggesting that the Paris demonstration could turn violent, even though the images were from Albania.

There were clashes at the end of the Paris demonstration, with masked protesters hurling objects and fireworks at police, who answered with clouds of tear gas, deafening sound grenades and jets of water cannons. There was also scattered violence in other cities and towns. Police made 1,314 arrests, the Interior Ministry said Sunday.

The Associated Press also reported Saturday from Tirana and protests elsewhere. AP verified that images shown on CNEWS, labelled “Porte d’Italie (Paris),” were shot at Rruga e Durrësit, a central Tirana street.

A CNEWS presenter subsequently apologized on air for what the channel described on its website as “a confusion of images.”

The presenter, Olivier Benkemoun, explained that the channel received video feeds from multiple locations and had misidentified some of the images.

“Earlier, you saw the guys who were covering their faces. Well, that wasn’t in Paris. We made a mistake in the control room,” he said.

“So, really, I want to apologize, also on behalf of the newsroom, because the images of guys covering their faces came from Albania,” he added.

Critics of the conservative news channel savaged the mistake.

“Footage from Albania to make it look like a live broadcast from Porte d’Italie! Pathetic,” said far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in a post on X.

Public broadcaster Franceinfo also confused Albania with France on Saturday.

It broadcast images of officers in riot gear advancing down a street, taking cover behind two trucks firing water cannons.

AP verified the location as Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit in central Tirana. But franceinfo’s television service said the images were coming live from Lyon, with a presenter saying that the situation in the city in southeastern France looked “a bit tense.”

Three minutes later, the presenter corrected the mistake.

“It followed an error on our part. These weren’t live images from Lyon but were live images from Tirana,” he said.

“I present our excuses.”

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Associated Press journalists Zana Cimili and Florent Bajrami in Tirana, Albania, contributed.