THE Editor and media editor of The Times are due to appear in a criminal court in Paris today to defend charges of libel brought by the Barclay brothers, the owners of The Daily Telegraph.
Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay claim that they were defamed in an article published in The Times in November 2004.
The twins have chosen to pursue their landmark action in the French courts, where libel is considered a criminal offence, on the basis that The Times sells about 3,500 copies in France.
Robert Thomson, the Editor of The Times, and the newspaper’s media editor, Dan Sabbagh, have both denied the charges.
The Barclays, who bought The Daily Telegraph in June 2004, claim that they were defamed in the 300-word article and are also seeking to enforce a right of reply (droit de réponse) against The Times.
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Under French press law, anyone who believes that they have been wronged by a media outlet can demand the publication of a letter or statement setting out their point of view.
The Barclay brothers’ French lawyer, Maître Bernard Vatier, a former chairman of the Paris Bar Council, said: “They reproach The Times for libelling them. The court will have to decide if there was a slight on their honour and their reputation.”
Mr Thomson said that the unusual case could have profound implications for media outlets that operate internationally.
He said: “That we should be in Paris arguing in French over the meaning of words published in English by a British newspaper is more than a little odd. It is even more unusual that this criminal case should be brought by the owners of another British newspaper.
“In this week of all weeks, when the issue of press freedom is being debated around the world, for newspaper owners to be resorting to the criminal law to resolve a dispute is truly extraordinary.
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“This case also has profound consequences for all media organisations, who could be vulnerable to litigation in any country in which their content, online or offline, circulates. We have full faith in the integrity of the French legal system and of the French judiciary and will defend ourselves vigorously in court.”
Under French law, the maximum fine if convicted is €12,000 (£8,200). French courts can also order defendants to pay damages, although these rarely exceed several thousand euros and are generally much smaller than in Britain.
Plaintiffs sometimes ask for symbolic damages of €1. Legal costs, too, tend to be lower in France, where hearings often last less than a day and where judgment is usually handed down at a later date.
There are few cases of British media outlets being taken to court in France, although one such example involved the Barclay brothers.
In 1997 they sued the BBC and the journalist John Sweeney after Sweeney gave an interview to BBC Radio Guernsey. The twins said the broadcast could be heard in northern France and filed for libel in Brittany. A French appeal court ordered Sweeney to pay Fr20,000 (£2,200), but rejected the claim against John Birt, then Director General of the BBC.
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In 1992 the Duchess of York took action under French law to prevent the publication in the French magazine Paris Match of photographs of her on holiday with John Bryan, a Texas businessman.