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French public television channel, France 3 has launched an investigation into how an off air video of irritated French President Nicolas Sarkozy found its way online.

The video shows a France 3 technician attaching a microphone to Sarkozy's tie, and ignoring the presidents greeting. "It's a question of manners," Sarkozy is heard saying on the video. "When you're invited, you're entitled to have people say 'hello' to you."

The video found its way to the Dailymotion Web site and has had close to 500,000 hits. It was recorded on Monday while Sarkozy was getting ready to be interviewed on France 3 television and leaked to liberal news blog, Rue89.

France 3 issued a statement about the leaked video that says,"The management has launched an internal investigation and also condemned, in the strongest terms possible, the piracy of images shot during the preparation of the special interview, which was attended by the President of the Republic yesterday (Monday)."

The center-right French political party, Union for a Popular Movement is criticizing the leaking of the video to the Internet.

"French citizens have a right to demand more seriousness and rigor on the part of the public service, which they help to finance and they support through a strong commitment to channels belonging to the France Television group," said UMP national secretary for Internet Thierry Solere in a statement.