'No-go': Fox News in hot water

On Tuesday, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she could take Fox News to court for saying her city had "no-go zones" for non-Muslims. Media and politicians widely derided Fox after a string of reports in the wake of the January 7 attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which killed 12 people.

Over the weekend, the controversial US news channel, often accused of playing fast and loose with the facts, issued a rare on-air apology for suggesting that strict Shariah, or Islamic law, governed parts of Paris and the English city of Birmingham.

"When we're insulted, and when we've had an image, then I think we'll have to sue. I think we'll have to go to court in order to have these words removed," Hidalgo told US news channel CNN on Tuesday. "The image of Paris has been prejudiced, and the honor of Paris has been prejudiced."

On January 10, Fox mapped the "no-go zones," which commentator Nolan Peterson said felt to him like being in Afghanistan or Iraq. Peterson said that Paris had 741 such zones, and described his experience as a visitor to the "ghettos" - a word he used twice - as "pretty scary."

Fox News is owned by Rupert Murdoch, whose holdings include The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, a large portion of the European pay-TV behemoth Sky and various other print and broadcast outlets on multiple continents.

'Some regrettable errors'

Another commentator, author Steven Emerson (pictured), called the British city Birmingham "totally Muslim," earning a rebuke from Prime Minister David Cameron, who called him a "complete idiot." Fox repeated those assertions for days, not backtracking for a week. Emerson later apologized and said his comments "were totally in error."

On Saturday, Fox news anchor Julie Banderas apologized for "some regrettable errors on air regarding the Muslim population in Europe, particularly with regard to England and France." Banderas added that "this applies especially to discussions of so-called no-go zones, areas where non-Muslims allegedly are not allowed in and police supposedly won't go."

The Fox reports became the butt of online jokes, and the jokey French news show Le Petit Journal sent fake correspondents Mike and John to report on the so-called dangerous areas. "Oh my God, it's an Islamist - he has a beard," one of the jittery reporters cries as a taxi pulls up. Another takes fright at the sight of a Moroccan restaurant: "Oh my God, a couscous! Very dangerous couscous in Paris!"

Despite the backtracking by Fox, on Monday Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal told a British think tank that some European countries allowed Muslims to establish autonomous neighborhoods in cities, which they govern by a harsh version of Islamic law.

The potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate later defended - and repeated - the statement after facing reporters' questions about his claims.

mkg/cmk (Reuters, AFP, AP)