egarrard
11-18-2005, 03:35 PM
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17294979-23109,00.html
BRITAIN'S Prince Charles is to launch legal action against a Sunday newspaper that published extracts from his private journals.
A spokesman for the heir to the throne said today he had reluctantly decided on the move against Associated Newspapers after extracts appeared in The Mail on Sunday.
The tabloid contained Charles's views on the 1997 handover of the British colony of Hong Kong to China. He was said in one comment to describe Chinese diplomats as "appalling old waxworks".
"This is a matter of principle," said his principal private secretary Sir Michael Peat in a statement.
"Like anybody else, the Prince of Wales is entitled to write a private journal without extracts being published.
"This journal was copied and passed to The Mail on Sunday without permission. We made this clear to The Mail On Sunday on five occasions, both orally and in writing," he added.
The Prince's journal – entitled The Handover of Hong Kong – or The Great Chinese Takeaway – described a group of Chinese at one ceremony with then-president Jiang Zemin as "appalling old waxworks".
The display was characterised as an "awful Soviet-style" performance, with "goose-stepping" soldiers carrying out a "ridiculous rigmarole".
He wrote: "After my speech, the president detached himself from the group of appalling old waxworks who accompanied him and took his place at the lectern.
"He then gave a kind of `propaganda' speech which was loudly cheered by the bussed-in party faithful at the suitable moment in the text."
He was said to have praised then-governor Chris Patten, whom he said insisted on democratic safeguards during the handover – but a transitional government, advocated by others, was described as "kow-towing" to the Chinese.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is also said to have been mentioned in the critique, as the prince attacked papers produced by political advisers, "none of whom will have ever experienced what it is they are taking decisions about". Hmmm...shouldn't he be going after the one who leaked his diary instead? :shifty
BRITAIN'S Prince Charles is to launch legal action against a Sunday newspaper that published extracts from his private journals.
A spokesman for the heir to the throne said today he had reluctantly decided on the move against Associated Newspapers after extracts appeared in The Mail on Sunday.
The tabloid contained Charles's views on the 1997 handover of the British colony of Hong Kong to China. He was said in one comment to describe Chinese diplomats as "appalling old waxworks".
"This is a matter of principle," said his principal private secretary Sir Michael Peat in a statement.
"Like anybody else, the Prince of Wales is entitled to write a private journal without extracts being published.
"This journal was copied and passed to The Mail on Sunday without permission. We made this clear to The Mail On Sunday on five occasions, both orally and in writing," he added.
The Prince's journal – entitled The Handover of Hong Kong – or The Great Chinese Takeaway – described a group of Chinese at one ceremony with then-president Jiang Zemin as "appalling old waxworks".
The display was characterised as an "awful Soviet-style" performance, with "goose-stepping" soldiers carrying out a "ridiculous rigmarole".
He wrote: "After my speech, the president detached himself from the group of appalling old waxworks who accompanied him and took his place at the lectern.
"He then gave a kind of `propaganda' speech which was loudly cheered by the bussed-in party faithful at the suitable moment in the text."
He was said to have praised then-governor Chris Patten, whom he said insisted on democratic safeguards during the handover – but a transitional government, advocated by others, was described as "kow-towing" to the Chinese.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is also said to have been mentioned in the critique, as the prince attacked papers produced by political advisers, "none of whom will have ever experienced what it is they are taking decisions about". Hmmm...shouldn't he be going after the one who leaked his diary instead? :shifty