Mayor 'to sue Fox News over reports'

MAYOR of Paris Anne Hidalgo is planning to sue US broadcaster Fox News for suggesting that there are Muslim ‘no-go zones’ in the city.

Ms Hidalgo told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that: “The image of Paris has been prejudiced. And the honour of Paris has been prejudiced."

She added: “When you're insulted, when you have a good image, you have to go to court to remedy these words.”

She was responding to remarks made on Fox News in which journalists and experts claimed that there are areas of Paris where non-Muslims and even police were afraid to go.

Canal+ satirical Le Petit Journal had already mocked the claims, with a “news report” from the streets of Paris, in which reporters claimed the French capital was the “most dangerous city in the universe”.

Ms Hidalgo also took New York mayor Bill de Blasio to one of Fox’s so-called “no-go zones”, the 19th arrondissement, during his visit to honour the victims of the terror attacks.

Fox News has since repeatedly apologised on air for its assertions. And yesterday, executive vice-president Michael Clemente said in a statement: "We empathise with the citizens of France as they go through a healing process and return to everyday life.

"However, we find the Mayor’s comments regarding a lawsuit misplaced."

Paris is not the only city to have been insulted on Fox News in the days after the terror attacks.

Steven Emerson, an American author and "terrorism expert", told the network that in Britain, “there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim, where non-Muslims just simply don't go in”.

He, too, has since apologised for what he has described as an "inexcusable error".

Paris City Hall has said it has not yet been decided whether a lawsuit will be filed in France, the US, “or both”.

Photo: Ville de Montreal