Calling somebody an antisemite is not an insult, maybe a defamation (Qualifier quelqu'un d'antisémite ne constitue pas une insulte, mais plutôt une diffamation) – Dismissal of the appeal against the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, 11th Chamber, dated 4 December 1986 which, in proceedings against the editor of a newspaper for public insult against a private individual, acquitted the defendant - Whereas, in order to acquit the defendant, the judges of the second instance rightly stated that the article in which a local councillor was described as "antisemitic" was devoted to an incident that had occurred during a meeting of the local council and that examination of the article revealed that its author had intended to criticise the attitude of the councillor who had opposed the naming of a street in the town after Mendès-France (a Jew) – It follows that the only criminal qualification that can be applied is that of defamation and not insult.

Art. 29, 33 Loi du 29 juillet 1881 sur la liberté de la presse; Art. 591 et 593 Code de procédure pénale