Paris: A court heard a French pop singer's lawsuit Monday against a TV news channel he accuses of violating his right to privacy by airing rumours he was having an affair with first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
Benjamin Biolay's lawyer rejected France 24 channel's argument that it was legitimate to discuss an affair that had been written about in the foreign press despite being almost entirely ignored by French media.
"How is it in the general interest to evoke adulterous relations between Mrs. Sarkozy and Benjamin Biolay?" Isabelle Wekstein asked the Paris court.
The judge said he would make a provisional ruling on the matter on Friday.
Biolay is demanding 20,000 euros (27,000 dollars) in damages from the publicly-funded all-news channel that is aimed at a global audience.
Monday's court hearing came less than a week after Bruni-Sarkozy went on a radio show to quash rumours of infidelity in her marriage with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The rumours first appeared on Twitter and a blog before being picked up by some mainstream media, especially British, German and Swiss newspapers.
According to the lawsuit, on March 10 a France 24 review of the day's press referred to "the rumour concerning the alleged relationship between Benjamin Biolay and the first lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy."
Biolay's lawyer said last week that the rumours were "inaccurate."
The 37-year-old Biolay is currently making a comeback on the French music scene, having previously worked with such icons as Juliette Greco and Francoise Hardy, as well as Bruni-Sarkozy, a former supermodel turned singer.
French police are investigating a complaint by the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche alleging that an employee introduced "fraudulent data into a computer" when the blog on the alleged affair was posted on their website last month.
A Sarkozy aide said the inquiry would reveal who started the rumours and suggested that foreign financial interests may have a hand, in a bid to undermine the French president during his campaign for financial reform.
Bruni-Sarkozy on Wednesday called the rumours "insignificant" and of "no importance," and said her husband was too busy working for France and the French people to be concerned about them.
Nevertheless, Bernard Squarcini, the head of France's domestic intelligence agency confirmed that his agents had been trying to track down the source of the rumours.
