Row erupted over use of imagery that resembled real-life murder case

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A French court has ruled that posters showing a screaming woman tied to railway tracks and about to be killed by a train are not illegal.

The advertisements sparked controversy and legal action after they were put up around the southern French town of Béziers last December to support a local campaign to get high-speed trains (TGVs) to the area.

The picture was captioned: “With the TGV she would have suffered less!”

Critics said the image and message condoned violence against women and demanded the far-right mayor of Béziers, Robert Ménard, take them down.

The poster campaign came months after Emilie Hallouin was killed by her partner in northern France after being tied to TGV tracks.

“The despicable Robert Ménard has killed her a second time,” the French senator Laurence Rossignol tweeted, calling for the removal of the posters.

The French equality minister, Marlène Schiappa,called the posters “odious” and said they should be fully investigated.

Ménard, elected with the support of the Front National (now the Rassemblement National) refused to take them down, insisting he was the victim of political correctness. He cited the use of similar images in films, cartoons and music videos.

“The outrageous and paranoid reactions to our poster speak volumes about the moral order that plagues the country,” he tweeted.

At an earlier hearing last year, the court refused to order the removal of the posters.

This week, the administrative court in Montpellier ruled the posters showed “a doubtful and provocative humour” but did not “promote violence against women … and do not target any type of person in particular”.

“These posters are not an attack on human dignity and do not constitute a form of harassment with regard to those of a female sex,” the judgment added.

Afterwards, Ménard tweeted that the case was an “inquisition in petticoats”.

Béziers town hall has since removed the posters, claiming they had fulfilled their purpose to draw media and public attention to its campaign for a new TGV Hérault line. It has always denied that the campaign had been inspired by Hallouin’s murder.

In a statement after this week’s ruling, it described the court’s decision as a “legal spanking” for Schiappa.