Business in Paris takes on graffiti guerrillas
By Philip Delves Broughton in Paris
(Filed: 11/03/2004)

Dozens of anti-capitalist militants appeared in court in Paris yesterday accused of a city-wide campaign of defacing posters on the public transport system.

Lawyers for the 62 defendants said they planned to adopt a "militant defence strategy", arguing that the protesters lived in a system which left them with no choice but to attack the adverts.

Their star witness will be the author Frederic Beigbeder who has taken up the anti-advertising cause. He has called the militants' actions "a legitimate response in a democracy".

Before the trial opened, he said: "The advertisers know that their power is excessive. There are citizens who do not agree with that. There is not really any other answer but civil disobedience."

He added: "Why should some people have the right to speak and others not? In a democracy, everyone has a right to speak."

What began as a straight-forward appeal on the internet last October to "reclaim the billboards" snowballed into a series of confrontations between police and spray-painting militants.

Hundreds joined in the attacks, defacing adverts on buses, bus stops and the walls of the Paris metro with large black Xs and slogans denouncing everything from France's state pension system to globalisation.

Paris's public transport system has demanded that the suspected vandals pay for the damage and a further £6,700 for each infraction. If imposed, the fine could be levied on the militant with the most money.

The defendants' lawyers will argue that many of those on trial were rounded up simply because they were standing watching those actually defacing an advertisement.