Paper loses appeal against judgment on Charles diaries

13 April 2012

The country's top appeal judges have thrown out a challenge to a High Court judgment over publication of the Prince of Wales' private diaries.

Charles had won a ruling that his copyright and confidentiality were infringed when the Mail on Sunday published extracts from his 1997 journal about the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese.

The newspaper took the case to the Court of Appeal, where the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, giving the ruling of the court, said the information published was private, and public disclosure was an interference with the Prince's private and family life guaranteed under the Human Rights Act.

Charles took action after the newspaper published extracts from his diary about the handover - entitled The Handover Of Hong Kong or The Great Chinese Takeaway - in which he referred to members of the Chinese hierarchy as "appalling old waxworks".

Lord Phillips, dismissing the newspaper's appeal, said: "As heir to the throne, Prince Charles is an important public figure.

"In respect of such persons, the public takes an interest in information about them that is relatively trivial. For this reason, public disclosure of such information can be particularly intrusive."

Mark Warby QC, representing the Mail on Sunday, had told Lord Phillips, Master of the Rolls Sir Anthony Clarke, and Lord Justice May at a hearing last month that the diary contained important information about the Prince's opinions.

The public should be allowed to learn what "the journal tells us about the attitude of the Prince of Wales to relations between the UK and China and the Prince's conduct in his role as heir to the throne".

But Lord Phillips said interference with the Prince's human rights "outweighed the significance" of interference with the newspaper's right to freedom of expression under the same Act.

Sir Michael Peat, Principal Private Secretary to The Prince of Wales, said in a statement after the ruling: "We are pleased that the Court of Appeal has decided that the Prince of Wales's case for breach of confidence is 'overwhelming' and has dismissed the Mail on Sunday's appeal. This confirms what we have always maintained, that The Prince of Wales, like anyone else, is entitled to keep his private journals private."

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