Human Rights Court Hears Princess' Paparazzi Dispute

Germany's claim to Monaco royality, Princess Caroline, has taken a decade-long privacy dispute with the German tabloids to the European court typically charged with handling major human rights issues.

The wife of Ernst August Prince of Hannover first filed suit against several German tabloids in 1993, after they published paparazzi photos of her riding, shopping and sunbathing were published in several German celebrity magazines.

After Germany's Consitutional Court sidestepped the case in 1999, Caroline's lawyers took it to European Court for Human Rights, arguing that the photos are a violation of Article 8 of the European Human Rights Convention, which give her the right to protection of her private and family life.

Caroline's lawyer Matthias Prinz said his client wants Europe-wide regulations such as those in France, where prominent people may only be photographed while carrying out public duties, unless otherwise agreed on.

Prinz said that as long as the German press is allowed to publish paparazzi-style photos taken abroad, laws such as those in France are meaningless.

"Paparazzi are manhunters, authorized by the German legal system," said Prinz at a hearing last Thursday.

German law at issue

The court normally hears cases of purportedly weightier issues, such as the recent trial of the Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan. Now, it's being asked to decide on whether or not German law sufficiently protects the right to privacy.

Referring to the court's more typical case load, Prinz said his client was essentially being tortured by the paparazzi.

"There’s the torture of isolation, and there’s the torture that comes of having your every move followed by the paparazzi and never for a second being sure that you’re truly alone," Prinz said, flanked by some of the offending photos which he had blown up and mounted on boards as evidence for the court. His client is not attending the hearing, he said, because that would have only attracted more photographers.

Reader's rights are at stake

But the German Association of Magazine Publishers argues that if Caroline gets her way, the press would be degraded to the function of mere court reporters.

Germany’s Constitutional Court largely agreed, dimissing her claim with the exception of the photographs in which she appeared with her children.

Prinz emphasised that Caroline’s children are constantly being followed, and that photographers frequently stake out their schools. His client, he said, has no official function in Monaco, she is simply "her father’s daughter," and therefore has the right to a private life.

But in Germany, he said, the interests of the tabloid press seem to take priority.

Robert Schweizer, a board member of the Burda Verlag, which publishes several German celebrity magazines, said the hearing in Strasbourg is not about the rights of the publishers, but rather the rights of millions of readers.

For them, Caroline of Monaco is a "role model," he said, which is why they have a justifiable interest in information about her life. Public interest in Germany about Caroline's life increased with her marriage to Prince Ernst August of Hannover.

German press under fire

The German tabloid press has been under seige as of late. Sweden's Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustaf have hired Prinz to prepare a lawsuit against several publications for printing what they allege are made-up stories.

"We want to a legal answer to the question of whether these publications can simply write what they want," said a royal spokeswoman.

Prinz said there are at least 40 questionable reports about the Swedish royals in the last 14 weeks alone, including reports that Crown Princess Victoria had an abortion, and that Silvia and Carl Gustaf were contemplating divorce.

They have the support of Norway’s monarchs, who have publicly criticised the German press for making up stories about Crown Prince Haakon, his wife, Princess Mette-Marit, as well as other members of the Norwegian royal family.