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.
"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.