Paper defies Schroeder's German gagging order
A British newspaper today defied attempts by a German court to stop it publishing allegations about the private life of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
The Mail on Sunday has repeated claims about the politician’s marriage in its latest edition.
A court in Hamburg issued an injunction on behalf of Mr Schroeder, forbidding the British weekly’s publishers, Associated Newspapers, from repeating the allegations.
The chancellor’s lawyers claimed that if the injunction was ignored, the paper could be fined.
Legal experts have said that the order was binding under EU law because Europe was treated as one jurisdiction.
But a comment in the newspaper stated: “Following a hearing in a German court which we were not even informed about until it was over, we are threatened with heavy penalties if we repeat the story in Germany, though we never published it in Germany in the first place.
“But, for now at least, we can ignore this blustering and these threats.
“Because of our different tradition and our robust democracy, we can publish this sort of material and believe we have every right to do so.”
It added: “As far as the best legal brains can say, this German court has no right to tell us what we can and cannot publish in these islands.”
The Mail on Sunday made several claims about the German leader earlier this year which were then reported by some newspapers in Germany.
Mr Schroeder’s lawyers wrote to the paper last week asking them not to repeat certain allegations from the story, which appeared on January 5.
They were in the process of formulating a response when the injunction was issued.
Last year, Mr Schroeder successfully sued a German press agency for suggesting that he dyed his hair.
The Mail on Sunday’s editor, Peter Wright, said: “We do not accept that Chancellor Schroeder can use a German court to tell us what we can and cannot report.
“The Mail on Sunday is a British newspaper published under British law. Mr Schroeder is an important European leader and we believe it is right that our readers should be fully informed about matters that affect his chancellorship.
“We do not intend to start taking lessons from German chancellors or German courts about the freedom of the Press.”
Tory MP Sir Teddy Taylor said he was “shocked” by the news and said he planned to table a Commons question about the “frightening development”.
He also called on the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, to make a statement on the situation.
Sir Teddy, MP for Southend East and Rochford, said: “This is yet another endeavour to increase the power of European laws and to undermine our freedom and democracy.
“It seems absolutely outrageous that a court in another European country can basically stop a British newspaper from publishing facts which might indeed be embarrassing.”
