Princess Diana Crash Photographers Fined For Privacy Invasion
February 22, 2006
By Daryl Lang
A court in Paris has ordered three photographers who pursued Princess Diana on the night of her fatal car crash in 1997 to pay a symbolic 1 euro fine, news agencies reported today.
The fine is just the latest episode in a long-running court dispute between the photographers and Mohamed Al Fayed, father of Diana's boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed, who also died in the crash.
Photographers Jacques Langevin, Fabrice Chassery and Christian Martinez were charged with breach of privacy. They were acquitted in 2003, but France's highest court, the Cour de Cassation, referred the case to an appeals court, which ruled against the photographers and imposed the fine last Friday.
The court imposed a fine of 1 euro split among the three photographers, to be paid to Mohamed Al Fayed, Reuters reported. The photographers also must pay for publication of the ruling in three newspapers chosen by Al Fayed.
"By showing Dodi Al Fayed mortally injured, bloody, his body broken by the shock of the accident, the photographers unquestionably committed a breach of the respect due to a human being and as a result violated the personal privacy of the individual concerned," the appeals court said, according to Agence France Presse.
France has stricter laws governing privacy and press coverage than the U.S., where news photographers are usually permitted to take pictures of anything in public view.
The French court considered two sets of photographs taken the night of Aug. 31, 1997: those taken of Diana and Dodi Al Fayed leaving the Ritz hotel in Pairs, and those taken a few minutes later at the underpass where their Mercedes crashed.
The court found that both sets of photographs were taken in private places without permission. It ruled that the interior of a car is a private place, even if a crash forces the door open.
Photographers at the scene of the crash were initially blamed for the accident. In the days after the crash, six photographers and one driver were arrested on potential involuntary homicide charges.
But French authorities eventually blamed the crash on excessive speed and found that the couple's chauffer, Henri Paul, had alcohol and prescription drugs in his bloodstream. Paul also died in the crash. Mohamed Al Fayed
February 22, 2006
By Daryl Lang
A court in Paris has ordered three photographers who pursued Princess Diana on the night of her fatal car crash in 1997 to pay a symbolic 1 euro fine, news agencies reported today.
The fine is just the latest episode in a long-running court dispute between the photographers and Mohamed Al Fayed, father of Diana's boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed, who also died in the crash.
Photographers Jacques Langevin, Fabrice Chassery and Christian Martinez were charged with breach of privacy. They were acquitted in 2003, but France's highest court, the Cour de Cassation, referred the case to an appeals court, which ruled against the photographers and imposed the fine last Friday.
The court imposed a fine of 1 euro split among the three photographers, to be paid to Mohamed Al Fayed, Reuters reported. The photographers also must pay for publication of the ruling in three newspapers chosen by Al Fayed.
"By showing Dodi Al Fayed mortally injured, bloody, his body broken by the shock of the accident, the photographers unquestionably committed a breach of the respect due to a human being and as a result violated the personal privacy of the individual concerned," the appeals court said, according to Agence France Presse.
France has stricter laws governing privacy and press coverage than the U.S., where news photographers are usually permitted to take pictures of anything in public view.
The French court considered two sets of photographs taken the night of Aug. 31, 1997: those taken of Diana and Dodi Al Fayed leaving the Ritz hotel in Pairs, and those taken a few minutes later at the underpass where their Mercedes crashed.
The court found that both sets of photographs were taken in private places without permission. It ruled that the interior of a car is a private place, even if a crash forces the door open.
Photographers at the scene of the crash were initially blamed for the accident. In the days after the crash, six photographers and one driver were arrested on potential involuntary homicide charges.
But French authorities eventually blamed the crash on excessive speed and found that the couple's chauffer, Henri Paul, had alcohol and prescription drugs in his bloodstream. Paul also died in the crash. Mohamed Al Fayed