Kate And Wills Win Injunction Battle But Lose Topless War

A French court has granted an injunction banning French media from re-publishing topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge.

Closer magazine in France, which first published the pictures, was also ordered to hand over all the images within 24 hours, and the company was fined €10,000 (£8,000) for every extra day it takes to comply with the order, according to the ruling from the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Nanterre, Paris.

The court order will not, in practical terms, be able to prevent anyone from seeing the photographs already published by Closer magazine. Neither will it prevent any magazine from publishing images that have not, as of yet, been published.

The Royal couple, who chose to share an intimate moment in their married life in public with Kate exposing her breasts while they recently frolicked on the terrace of a rented villa in France, have also pursued a criminal complaint against the unknown photographer and the editor of Closer magazine.

A court in Nanterre, near Paris, has now opened a separate criminal investigation into charges that Closer and a photographer breached the privacy of the Duke and Duchess by publishing the topless photos.

In the criminal suit, the magazine could be fined up to €45,000 (£36,000) and the editor, Laurence Pieau, could be jailed for up to a year, but it’s doubtful that the case will be pursued by the Court or that the maximum punishment would be handed out even if it does take up the complaint.

It’s quite a dangerous precedent for a member of the British Royal Family to pursue a reporter or journalist in order to imprison them. Such heavy handedness will not play well with public opinion outside the UK given that Kate brought this upon herself by exposing her breasts in public (at least visible from the road) which could itself be an offence in the UK under similar circumstances.

http://www.wirenews.co/op-ed/uk/1802/kate-and-wills-win-injunction-battle-but-lose-topless-war