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Injunction sought in France to stop using Kate's topless photos
Source: Agencies |
September 17, 2012, Monday
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LAWYERS for Britain's royal family will go to court in France today in a bid to stop further publication in that country of topless photos of William's wife Kate, the prince's office said yesterday.
St James's Palace says lawyers will seek an injunction against Italian media group Mondadori, which publishes France's Closer and Italy's Chi gossip magazines, in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. The palace also will seek damages from the publisher, which is owned by former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.
"We will be seeking an injunction from them (Closer) using the pictures and it will lead to a longer court case where damages will be sought," said a spokesman for St James's Palace.
In a fresh blow to the royals the images appeared again in Saturday's Irish Daily Star.
"There can be no motivation for this action other than greed," said a spokeswoman for Catherine and her husband, the second-in-line to the British throne.
Italian gossip magazine Chi, meanwhile, is planning to devote 26 pages to the grainy paparazzi photographs in a special issue today - a move the palace said would heap "unjustifiable upset" on the former Kate Middleton.
The Mondadori Group backed both magazines' decisions to print the photos, which were taken with a long lens while William and Catherine, both 30, were holidaying at a private chateau in the south of France.
"The editors of both titles decided to publish the photos because their content is a clear expression of the news, they depict a true event, and they do not undermine the people photographed," Mondadori said in a statement.
Chi magazine's editor Alfonso Signorini said the pictures were "a scoop" he could not afford to miss.
"If I wasn't capable of recognizing the true value of a scoop I would do better to go and sell artichokes at the market," he told ANSA news agency.
He said did not ask Berlusconi's permission to print the images.
Peeping Toms
A palace spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the royal family was launching legal action against Chi and the Irish Daily Star.
"All proportionate responses will be kept under review," she said.
Former British prime minister John Major said yesterday it was "absolutely right" that the couple had initiated legal proceedings. Speaking on BBC, Major branded the offending publications "peeping Toms."
Unlike Mondadori, the two media groups that jointly own the Irish Daily Star condemned its decision to run the pictures.
Britain's Northern and Shell group said it was taking "immediate steps" to close the joint venture with Dublin-based publisher Independent News and Media which runs the Irish Daily Star.
"The decision to publish these pictures has no justification whatever and Northern and Shell condemns it in the strongest possible terms," said the company's chairman Richard Desmond.
Independent News and Media said it had no prior knowledge of the decision, which it described as "regrettable and in poor taste."
The Irish Daily Star's editor Mike O'Kane admitted he was running the pictures to sell more papers, and said he had treated Catherine as he would any other celebrity.
"The duchess would be no different to any other celeb pics we would get in, for example Rihanna or Lady Gaga," he told the BBC on Saturday.
The photos would not appear in the British or Northern Irish editions of the Daily Star, he added.
St James's Palace says lawyers will seek an injunction against Italian media group Mondadori, which publishes France's Closer and Italy's Chi gossip magazines, in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. The palace also will seek damages from the publisher, which is owned by former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.
"We will be seeking an injunction from them (Closer) using the pictures and it will lead to a longer court case where damages will be sought," said a spokesman for St James's Palace.
In a fresh blow to the royals the images appeared again in Saturday's Irish Daily Star.
"There can be no motivation for this action other than greed," said a spokeswoman for Catherine and her husband, the second-in-line to the British throne.
Italian gossip magazine Chi, meanwhile, is planning to devote 26 pages to the grainy paparazzi photographs in a special issue today - a move the palace said would heap "unjustifiable upset" on the former Kate Middleton.
The Mondadori Group backed both magazines' decisions to print the photos, which were taken with a long lens while William and Catherine, both 30, were holidaying at a private chateau in the south of France.
"The editors of both titles decided to publish the photos because their content is a clear expression of the news, they depict a true event, and they do not undermine the people photographed," Mondadori said in a statement.
Chi magazine's editor Alfonso Signorini said the pictures were "a scoop" he could not afford to miss.
"If I wasn't capable of recognizing the true value of a scoop I would do better to go and sell artichokes at the market," he told ANSA news agency.
He said did not ask Berlusconi's permission to print the images.
Peeping Toms
A palace spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the royal family was launching legal action against Chi and the Irish Daily Star.
"All proportionate responses will be kept under review," she said.
Former British prime minister John Major said yesterday it was "absolutely right" that the couple had initiated legal proceedings. Speaking on BBC, Major branded the offending publications "peeping Toms."
Unlike Mondadori, the two media groups that jointly own the Irish Daily Star condemned its decision to run the pictures.
Britain's Northern and Shell group said it was taking "immediate steps" to close the joint venture with Dublin-based publisher Independent News and Media which runs the Irish Daily Star.
"The decision to publish these pictures has no justification whatever and Northern and Shell condemns it in the strongest possible terms," said the company's chairman Richard Desmond.
Independent News and Media said it had no prior knowledge of the decision, which it described as "regrettable and in poor taste."
The Irish Daily Star's editor Mike O'Kane admitted he was running the pictures to sell more papers, and said he had treated Catherine as he would any other celebrity.
"The duchess would be no different to any other celeb pics we would get in, for example Rihanna or Lady Gaga," he told the BBC on Saturday.
The photos would not appear in the British or Northern Irish editions of the Daily Star, he added.
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