CNN reports from G20 in Cannes - Spain!

All right a question to all Americans reading this.

How good is your knowledge of European geography?

Hopefully a little (or should that be a lot) better than someone over at CNN, the US cable news channel with of course its well-known international counterpart.

The channel has deployed, what the French weekly news magazine Le Point calls, "its usual army of journalists and technicians" to cover the G20 summit.

You know, the talkathon currently taking place in Cannes - hosted by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy with guest of honour his US counterpart Barack Obama.

The two men are to appear in a 15-minute pre-recorded interview on prime time news in France on Friday evening - apparently more than enough time to cover all the world's issues and any questions on re-election they might both face next year. But that's an aside.

Er - so where were we? Oh yes - G20 summit, Cannes on the French Riviera and ergo in France...well not quite it appears.

Because someone back home at CNN HQ responsible for putting together world maps managed to place the city, world famous for its annual film festival, not just several hundred kilometres away but in a completely different country - Spain to be precise.

Now we all know that Americans can have a rather - how to put this politely? - tainted view of the world, geographically speaking but really!

The blunder didn't go unnoticed on the Net of course with comments ranging from "CNN exclusive - northern Spain has been ceded to France" to the suggestion that "when the US invades Iran, best make sure that CNN are not embedded with the military."

Click here to see one of many images of CNN's latest take on European geography.

Cécile Duflot's cartographical fluff

Cécile Duflot is without doubt an educated, articulate and ambitious woman.

Cécile Duflot (screenshot BFM TV)

Her political career has been what the national daily Le Monde has described as "meteoric".

She joined Les Verts (the Greens) in 2001 and became the party's national secretary in 2006.

When it merged with Europe Écologie last year, she took over where she had left off by becoming the first national secretary of Europe Écologie - Les Verts.

The 35-year-old has become a regular guest on current affairs programmes, and right now of course, her media savvy approach and ability to express her thinking and ideas in a well-informed yet intelligible manner are more than welcomed and appreciated by many journalists.

You might not agree with what she says, but there's no denying she has something to say and as if to drive home that point she figured at position 32 in the list of the American magazine Foreign Policy's global thinkers in 2010.

But even the best and brightest are prone to mistakes.

And such was the case when Duflot, who holds a masters in geography (remember that) appeared as a guest on BFM TV's Wednesday edition of its early evening news and current affairs programme hosted by Ruth Elkrief.

Asked about the risks of radioactive materials from the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan reaching French shores, Duflot said that nobody could say for certain at the moment.

"In theory the chances of it reaching mainland France are low," she said.

"The incident has happened in the southern hemisphere and in theory meteorological conditions should mean that the radioactivity will remain in the southern hemisphere. But we can never be certain."

Notice the slip-up?

Remember Duflot has a masters in geography.

Jacques-Emmanuel Saulnier (screenshot BFM TV)

Jacques-Emmanuel Saulnier, the spokesman for the French energy giant Areva, certainly did when he was asked a couple of minutes later whether it was true that France's nuclear power facilities were as safe as the country's politicians maintained.

"Before answering that, and without being a geographical expert, I would just like to invite Cécile Duflot to take a look at a globe of the world," he began.

"Because as far as I know Japan is actually in the northern hemisphere."

Oops.


Cécile DUFLOT par BFMTV