Twenty people were killed, including the three attackers, in the extremist attacks around Paris that ended with police raids on a printing plant and a kosher supermarket where hostages were being held.
At the printing plant north of Paris, hostage Lilian Lepere was hiding in a cupboard under a sink, apparently unknown to the gunmen, when at least three television and radio stations revealed his possible presence. He was eventually released unharmed.
"Delivering information without careful consideration may lead to endanger other's lives. Journalists must think of it," he said.
On January 9, as the police surrounded the printing plant, lawmaker Yves Albarello revealed on radio station RMC that an employee was hiding in the building.
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Later, Lepere's sister Cindy confirmed in an interview to public television station France 2 that she believed her brother to be in the plant and that the family had stopped calling him in order to not compromise his hiding. Meanwhile, a journalist of TF1 television also reported the information.
The watchdog agency, known as CSA, notably accused the stations of putting the lives of hostages in danger. It also reprimanded two stations for broadcasting images of radical gunmen shooting a policeman in the head outside the offices of newspaper Charlie Hebdo.