European Papers Pulled From British Newsstands

Readers in Britain didn't get to see Le Monde's coverage of the controversy surrounding Prince Charles on Tuesday. The 7,000 copies of the French paper that were supposed to be distributed in Britain never made it into the hands of readers. Le Monde's UK distributor, the London-based daily The Financial Times, didn't circulate them.

On Saturday, Le Monde and more than two dozen other major European newspapers, from France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, were left undistributed in Britain. They were back on the newsstands on Monday. Le Monde is now making an issue out of the situation.

According to Le Monde, The Financial Times withdrew the paper because it feared it might breach a court injunction banning the media from relating details about a 'sexual incident' allegedly involving Prince Charles and a former servant to the Windsor family.

In an e-mail published by Le Monde on its Web site, The Financial Times wrote that it would collect the newspapers from the London-Paris train that delivered them and pulp them. It also expressed frustration over having to take such action, especially "over a story which is apparently widely disseminated on the Internet."

Explosive allegations stifled

The libel injunction was issued by a UK high court last week to prevent a British paper, The Mail on Sunday, from publishing an interview with George Smith, a former Windsor family valet, that purportedly carried explosive allegations involving "an important member of the royal family" and Michael Fawcett, another former servant. Fawcett succeeded in obtaining the injunction after he claimed he had been slandered.

The details of the alleged affair remain unsubstantiated, but they revolve around the prince’s sexual preference.