In the program aired on France 2 on August 10, journalist Valerie Astruc showed a picture of Putin stroking a sleeping tiger, saying that the Russian leader was "hunting a tiger in Siberia."
However, the photo was taken in August 2008 during Putin's visit to the Ussurisky nature reserve. Putin was then serving as prime minister.
28 July 2018, 13:27 GMT
"On Friday night, we were talking about Vladimir Putin, who hunted tigers in Siberia. This picture was actually taken during an expedition to observe wild tigers. There was a mistake in the comment [of the journalist]," a France 2 news presenter said on Monday night.
The story triggered a debate among French Facebook users, who cast doubt on the accuracy of information provided by the broadcaster.
On August 12, an article titled "No, Putin does not hunt a tiger during his holidays" was published on the French Liberation newspaper's CheckNews.fr website.
