His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales v Associated Newspapers Ltd | |
---|---|
Court | High Court |
Full case name | His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales v Associated Newspapers Limited |
Decided | 13 January 2006 |
Citation(s) | [2006] EWHC 11 (Ch) |
Transcript(s) | His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales v. Associated Newspapers Ltd |
Court membership | |
Judge(s) sitting | David Kitchin |
Keywords | |
Privacy |
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales v Associated Newspapers Ltd [2006] EWHC 11 (Ch) is an English legal case brought about when The Mail on Sunday published extracts of a dispatch by Charles, Prince of Wales (later Charles III).
The extracts published in November 2005 from the dispatch, titled "The handover of Hong Kong or the Great Chinese Takeaway", were personally embarrassing to the Prince. The dispatch had been written on the flight back from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom from the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong to China, and had been handed out to friends. The Prince described the 1997 Hong Kong handover ceremony as an "awful Soviet-style" performance and "ridiculous rigmarole" and the likened Chinese officials to "appalling old waxworks". [1] The extracts were one of eight reports written following overseas tours in the 1990s that were leaked to the newspaper by Sarah Goodall, a former secretary in the prince's household from 1988 to 2000. [2] [3] The journals were written by Charles following foreign visits and over the course of 30 years. They had been shared "in confidence" with between 50 and 75 people. [3]
The Prince won the case and gained an injunction in January 2006 which prevented The Mail on Sunday from publishing further extracts from the diary. [4] The High Court ruled in a summary judgment in March 2006 that the newspaper had infringed his copyright and confidentiality. [2] No judgement was made regarding the seven unpublished reports from his journals. [2] An appeal hearing was held in November 2006, but the newspaper's request for a trial was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in December 2006. [5]
The politics of Hong Kong takes place in a framework of a political system dominated by its quasi-constitutional document, the Hong Kong Basic Law, its own legislature, the Chief Executive as the head of government and of the Special Administrative Region and of a politically constrained multi-party presidential system. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China is led by the Chief Executive, the head of government.
Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was made a life peer in 2005 and has been Chancellor of the University of Oxford since 2003. He is also one of the two living former governors of Hong Kong with David Wilson.
The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China is a national law of China that serves as the organic law for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). Comprising nine chapters, 160 articles and three annexes, the Basic Law was composed to implement Annex I of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.
The Standard is an English-language free newspaper in Hong Kong with a daily circulation of 200,450 in 2012. It was formerly called the Hongkong Standard and changed to HKiMail during the Internet boom but partially reverted to The Standard in 2001.
The Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) was the interim legislature of Hong Kong that operated from 1997 to 1998. The legislature was founded in Guangzhou and sat in Shenzhen from 1996 until the handover in 1997 and moved to Hong Kong to serve as the temporary replacement of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It was established by the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region by resolution at its Second Plenary Session on 24 March 1996. The 60 members of the PLC were elected on 21 December 1996 by the 400-member Selection Committee for the First Government of the HKSAR, which also elected the first Chief Executive. The official start date for this council was on 25 January 1997.
DMG Media is an intermediate holding company for Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media, Harmsworth Printing, Harmsworth Media and other subsidiaries of Daily Mail and General Trust. It is based at 9 Derry Street in Kensington, west London.
Syed Kemal Shah Bokhary is a judge in Hong Kong. He was one of three Permanent Judges of Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal from its inception in 1997 until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 in October 2012; afterwards, he remained on the bench as a non-permanent judge.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the final court of appeal in the United Kingdom for all civil cases, and for criminal cases originating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As the United Kingdom’s highest appellate court for these matters, it hears cases of the greatest public or constitutional importance affecting the whole population.
The handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China was at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony, which began in 1841. Hong Kong was established as a special administrative region of China (SAR) for 50 years, maintaining its own economic and governing systems from those of mainland China during this time, although influence from the central government in Beijing increased after the passing of the Hong Kong national security law in 2020.
Human rights protection is enshrined in the Basic Law and its Bill of Rights Ordinance (Cap.383). By virtue of the Bill of Rights Ordinance and Basic Law Article 39, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is put into effect in Hong Kong. Any local legislation that is inconsistent with the Basic Law can be set aside by the courts. This does not apply to national legislation that applies to Hong Kong, such as the National Security Law, even if it is inconsistent with the Bills of Rights Ordinance, ICCPR, or the Basic Law.
The handover ceremony of Hong Kong in 1997 officially marked the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the People's Republic of China. It was an internationally televised event with the ceremony commencing on the night of 30 June 1997 and finishing on the morning of 1 July 1997. The ceremony was held at the new wing of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) in Wan Chai.
David Philip Pannick, Baron Pannick, is a British barrister and a crossbencher in the House of Lords. He practises mainly in the areas of public law and human rights. He has argued cases before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, the European Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP), with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained Hong Kong's newspaper of record since British colonial rule. Editor-in-chief Tammy Tam succeeded Wang Xiangwei in 2016. The SCMP prints paper editions in Hong Kong and operates an online news website that is blocked in mainland China.
The Mail on Sunday is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was founded in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the Daily Mail, was first published in 1896.
Sir David Eady is a retired High Court judge in England and Wales. As a judge, he is known for having presided over many high-profile libel and privacy cases.
Hugh Richard Edward Tomlinson KC is a barrister in England and Wales, an English translator of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and a founding member of Matrix Chambers. He is a specialist in media and information law including defamation, confidence, privacy and data protection.
Sir William Anthony Blackburne is a retired High Court Judge at the Royal Courts of Justice in London who is presently the Chairman of the Competition Appeal Tribunal. Blackburne was Called to the Bar in 1966 from Inner Temple, although a year or two later he joined Lincoln's Inn and eventually became a Queen's Counsel in 1984. He practised from 13 Old Square. Blackburne became a High Court judge in the Chancery Division on 1 October 1993 and retired on 27 October 2009. Since retiring Blackburne sat as a High Court Judge on a part-time basis. He also served as Treasurer of Lincoln's Inn.
The "black spider" memos are letters and memorandums written by Charles III of the United Kingdom, during his tenure as Prince of Wales, to British government ministers and politicians over several years. As the modern British monarch remains politically neutral by convention, the letters were controversial because of Charles' then-position as eldest child of the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II and heir apparent to the British throne.
Hong Kong does not recognise same-sex marriages or civil unions. However, same-sex couples are afforded limited legal rights as a result of several court decisions, including the right to apply for a spousal visa, spousal benefits for the partners of government employees, and guardianship rights and joint custody of children.
Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family is a biography by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, revolving around the married lives of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The book was written with the Duchess's contribution through a third-party source. It was published on 11 August 2020 by HarperCollins.