LEGAL ACTION:LAWYERS FOR the British royal family have sought an injunction to force the French magazine Closer to withdraw all copies of its latest edition, which contains topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge.
At a civil hearing in the Paris suburb of Nanterre yesterday, legal representatives of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge demanded that the magazine withdraw all copies from sale and remove the photographs from its website.
The couple is seeking to have a €100,000 fine imposed on Closer for failure to comply with any order to remove the magazine from sale, and are demanding a further €100,000 fine for the distribution of the pictures to other publications.
The French magazine has defended its decision to publish the images of the British couple, taken while they were on holiday in the south of France. In a statement posted on its website, it said none of the pictures it published were degrading. “They show a young couple on holiday – beautiful, loving and modern in their normal life,” it said.
The Irish Daily Star and the Italian magazine Chi, which is published by the Mondadori media group that owns Closer, also printed the pictures.
In a separate case, the duke and duchess yesterday launched criminal action against Closer and the photographer who took the pictures.
Under France’s privacy laws, the magazine could face a fine of between €15,000 and €30,000 and its editor could be given up to a year in prison. The duke and duchess also want the photographer who took the pictures charged.
A more lenient ruling would compel the weekly magazine to publish the entirety of the court’s decision in its next edition.
