Celebrities' Rights Strengthened

The Federal Court of Justice, Germany's highest appellate court for civil and criminal cases, ruled Tuesday that Monaco's Princess Caroline and her husband, Prince Ernst August of Hanover were justified in their lawsuit against German celebrity magazines for publishing covertly-shot photographs of them taken on vacation by paparazzi.

Tuesday's decision, which strengthens the rights of celebrities when it comes to the publication of paparazzi photographs, is only the latest development in an ongoing legal tug-of-war between publishers and the royal couple.

The two had sued several magazines for publishing covert snapshots of them without their consent. One image captures the Princess of Monaco and her husband on a busy street during a holiday trip, for example, and another shows them on a ski lift in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The court ruled that the former photo is permissible, while the latter is not.

The street photo was published alongside an article describing what the court in Karlsruhe called a "contemporary event": Princess Caroline was vacationing with her husband while her younger sister was left to tend to their sick father, Prince Rainier of Monaco. But the St. Moritz photo has no "informational value" for the general public, the court found, and so constitutes a violation of the couple's privacy rights.

Germany's changing standard

Tuesday's decision follows in the footsteps of a June 2004 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The European judges found that photos of the princess published in 1993 and 1997 were illegal, because she had not been photographed in any official capacity and there was no proof that the photo documented an issue of general public concern.

But that ruling contradicts the German standard for celebrity press coverage, hitherto enforced by the Federal Constitutional Court. Celebrities and other public figures in Germany are considered "absolute persons of contemporary history," and as such, any event relating to their lives is of public interest. On the flipside, a "relative person of contemporary history" is someone who is only temporarily involved in a current event.

Although these categories still apply, Tuesday's ruling in Karlsruhe has qualified the absolute public figure. Now, coverage relating to a celebrity "must go beyond the satisfaction of sheer curiosity," the judges found.

The German National Federation of Publishers has described this new interpretation as a "blank check for censorship."

The Federation's Commissioner for Media Policy, Christoph Fiedler hopes the Federal Constitutional Court will refute the latest ruling. "Otherwise, public figures from political, cultural and economic circles would gain a power over their own coverage that is incompatible with a free democracy," he said.