Germany to Pay Princess Caroline Damages

In an out-of-court settlement, Germany agreed to pay Princess Caroline of Monaco 115,000 euros ($140,000) for legal costs and non-pecuniary damages after the government lost a legal dispute over the media's right to publish private photos of celebrities, the European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg, France, announced Thursday. The court had ruled in Caroline's favor in June 2004, saying that the public does not have a legitimate interest in knowing what the princess does in her private life and that Germany did not adequately protect private sphere of prominent people. Caroline had appealed to Strasbourg after Germany's highest court ruled that as a "person of contemporary history," she would have to accept German publications printing photos of her without her consent. The Strasbourg court had postponed making a decision on possible compensation. Caroline had initially demanded 190,000 euros for legal costs and damages.