Telma Ortiz's Case Against the Paparazzi Press: April 2008

[Amelia]

Separate paid photoshoot like many other even royal quests on events like this... Get real .

I have read and re-read this many times but I can't get what you mean - are you saying she did and that many other family members of soon to be princesses have done the same?

Unfortunately for her, she did and this has been taking into consideration by the judge. It is impossible to ask for privacy when you have been paid to pose horse riding in Asturias and in her appartment saying 'that she had friends in common with the prince'.

Do you happen to have a copy of the interview or a link to the photoshoot you say she did?

 

[lula]

You are repeating lies again and again.

She has never granted an interview in her apartment speaking about her boyfriends (Neither she said that she was going to marry Alberto of Monaco it invented the German press), and the photos in horse were taken by paparazzi, like there are hundreds of photos of her taken by paparazzi without her assent.

I believe that you should check your sources of information, and to learn like it works the press and the magazines in Spain before continuing lying.

 

[magnik]

Unfortunately for her, she did and this has been taking into consideration by the judge. It is impossible to ask for privacy when you have been paid to pose horse riding in Asturias and in her appartment saying 'that she had friends in common with the prince'. Which in fact it was true at the time. But it lacks certain coherence. That is why she has to pay at least 50.000 euros for the trial against 54 media companies. Most of them had never published anything from her.

So you had read everything what they had wrote even about her in last years?

There are two types of press. Elite and 'popular press' of course. I guess same as here in England. Though not so yellowish for sure.

Two types of press are not only in England btw.

In the early years of the democracy, the press moved from being censored and a propaganda tool of Franco's dictatorship to a more 'free press'. The censorship is yet present to a certain degree unfortunately.

In Poland we have censor too by 50 years. Now we have democracy and yellow/pink press too. There's something like ethics.

The King and Queen have never had any problem with it nor the 'infantas' and their families. Certain members of hig-class families pay not to be in the press and nothing has ever been published of them.

Rumours about King's affairs.

I understand it absolutely impossible for foreigners to understand the socieconomical background of Spain and its culture.

So you understand it?

 

[magnik]

I have read and re-read this many times but I can't get what you mean - are you saying she did and that many other family members of soon to be princesses have done the same?

Sorry Amelia.
I try to say (with little ironic) that if the press pay Telma for her separate photoshoot on Letizia's wedding than they (press) must done it and will do for any royal or non royal guests on event like royal/noble wedding, baptisms...
Now it's little clear?

 

[Amelia]

Yes, thank you magnik

 

[PrincessAna]

I have never spoken about the wedding. But after the announcement, Letizia's family were a major focus of interest. Her mother's sindicalist office, her father's girlfriend, her sister's friends, etc. She was in a private interview speaking about her common friends with the Prince as a reason of how Letizia integrated in his group of friends. I read the inteview at the time and I thought it was boring. Same with the designer dresses and her horse riding pictures admiting she was still learning. I read the magazine and had a look at the pictures. And that is it. The same as I will be doing every week when the press arrives to the office.

I think if unemployed Thelma has to pay now up to 50.000 euros for the trial costs it is somehow deserved to the extent of having offered paid interviews in the past. I do understand the socioeconomical background of Spain after 25 years living in Spain and two degrees. But I am obvioulsy no expert and I am open to opinions and critical analysis.

 

[catango]

I have never spoken about the wedding. But after the announcement, Letizia's family were a major focus of interest. Her mother's sindicalist office, her sister's friends, etc. She was in a private interview speaking about her common friends with the Prince as a reason of how Letizia integrated in his group of friends. I read the inteview at the time and I thought it was boring. Same with the designer dresses and her horse riding pictures admiting she was still learning. I read the magazine and had a look at the pictures. And that is it. The same as I will be doing every week when the press arrives to the office.

You know as a journalist you are a hopeless case.

 

[PrincessAna]

I really do not understand why. To be honest I worked at a newspaper in Spain and I remember the Royals were a tabu subject. So you cannot really lecture me about that. Censorship was the law, thankfully I do not write for spanish press anymore. That was goebbelian!

 

[lula]

I believe that there is something that you do not understand. You confuse an interview with the fact that a person does an article with information, photos taken for paparazzis, or gossips that they have found in some place.

Yes, initially they did questions to her since they were done to all the relatives of the princess. Yes, she appeared going out of the shop of the designer who did her suit for the wedding, but she never posed for a magazine. And the photos in horse were done by paparazzi.

Evidently if you have groups of journalists chasing you the whole day and ask constant, initially for patience and education you answer, until they go over the limits.

Thelma has never charged for appearing in a magazine, and nobody in the judgment has said it. And are well-read dozens of chronicles.

Certainly, a very curious opinion with regard to the judgment.

Ana Belén: en la prensa del corazón 'sales cuando se les pone en el cogote'

Ana Belén: in the pink magazines ' you go out when it puts on them in the nape '

The singer Ana Belén appeared today in disagreement with which the protection demand has been scorned to the image presented by Telma Ortiz, sister of the princess of Asturias, and affirmed that in the pink magazines ' you go out when it puts on them in the nape '.

' When I read in the press that some attorney of the imputed parts us put from example to me and to Miguel Ríos, I thought, that hypocrisy!, because, I have passed years in which the same people have insulted me, for saying not, for protecting my children, who did not have to suffer that their parents were known '.

She added in the matter that to try to protect her children supposed her, in many cases ' the insult. Then, putting to meet as example of look, which do not want to go out in the press, they do not go out, it is not true. Your you are going to go out providing that it puts on them in the nape and they are not going to respect anything '.

 

[PrincessAna]

It is true that Ana Belen's children were never in the press. SAme with many famous families and also with most high-class families.
No news, no pictures, anything.
I read the interviews given by Thelma and I am not going to argue anything else about it. To me, it was of no interest and I have to say I preffered Erika's attitude of silence and that she never reply any magazine's proposals. Letizia has given a few interviews mostly to EL Pais, same again next sunday.

 

[donnaK]

It is true that Ana Belen's children were never in the press. SAme with many famous families and also with most high-class families.
No news, no pictures, anything.
I read the interviews given by Thelma and I am not going to argue anything else about it. To me, it was of no interest and I have to say I preffered Erika's attitude of silence and that she never reply any magazine's proposals. Letizia has given a few interviews mostly to EL Pais, same again next sunday.

I really hope you are informed well. Erika gave one interview to Hola and she received lots of criticism afterwards. Telma had never given any exclusive interview, there were some quotes out there of hers, those were pretty much the answers she gave to the paparazzis, much like some of her mom's.

 

[lula]

It is true that Ana Belen's children were never in the press. SAme with many famous families and also with most high-class families.
No news, no pictures, anything.
I read the interviews given by Thelma and I am not going to argue anything else about it. To me, it was of no interest and I have to say I preffered Erika's attitude of silence and that she never reply any magazine's proposals. Letizia has given a few interviews mostly to EL Pais, same again next sunday.

Really I believe that you are totally lost in your information.
It was Erika who gave a small interview to an agency not Thelma.

The Princess has not granted any interview, she does declarations to the press every week, but she has not granted a interviews properly.. Only she appeared together with the Prince who was the one that was speaking in an article on the Prizes Prince of Asturias.

On Sunday El País does not publish an interview, publishes an article of a journalist who has followed the Princess in her activities and who has investigated on her life. It is simply a serious work, with the same information that are in the habit of having those that i follows the information of the Royal House for newspaper.

 

[PrincessAna]

I read the press and I try to keep myself well informed. I had a look at the horse riding photoshoot and her interview about her circle of friends in common with Felipe's. I have even seen an article with pictures of thelma in Thailand and Cabo Verde. Even in the Philiphines, and she was smiling to the camera. Erika much less if not at all.

 

[PrincessAna]

In spanish we say entrevista.
I do not know if you translate it with a different shade.

"Los Príncipes de Asturias han decidido conceder una entrevista exclusiva al diario 'El País', concretamente al suplemento dominical 'El País Semanal', con motivo de la publicación de un especial por los 25 años de los Premios Príncipe de Asturias. "

"Don Felipe no dejó lugar a dudas en la entrevista que concedió el pasado martes a la agencia Efe con motivo de su cumpleaños".

Mas comunmente suele hablarse de una exclusiva de letizia a el pais.

 

[lula]

Erika appeared in the press much more than Thelma, because she was living in Spain. Erika had many days to the press in the door of the school of her daughter.

All the photos on that you have commented, were done by agencies of paparazzi who decided to travel to the countries where Thelma was because it was profitable, since the magazines were paying well the photos, because the member of the family of the Princess who on having lived out of the country was less controlled. Even they managed to publish photos that were of the Red Cross.

In Spain there are many paparazzi who chase constant famous prominent figures, and they do photos and sell to magazines, without the personage could say nothing. It is like this business works. That you appear in one magazine do not mean that you do it because you want.

 

[lula]

In spanish we say entrevista.
I do not know if you translate it with a different shade.

"Los Príncipes de Asturias han decidido conceder una entrevista exclusiva al diario 'El País', concretamente al suplemento dominical 'El País Semanal', con motivo de la publicación de un especial por los 25 años de los Premios Príncipe de Asturias. "

"Don Felipe no dejó lugar a dudas en la entrevista que concedió el pasado martes a la agencia Efe con motivo de su cumpleaños".

Mas comunmente suele hablarse de una exclusiva de letizia a el pais.

The article of the Prizes Prince of Asturias already I have commented on it, and another news is on the Prince not on the Princess.

And I repeat, El País newspaper does not publish an exclusive interview (entrevista exclusiva para ti), publishes an article that they are two very different things. Not which is your source, but mine in the Channel Four that belongs to the Group Prisa owners of the newspaper El País, where they have spoken about this ARTICLE, without they never speak about any interview.

 

[planetcher]

I read the press and I try to keep myself well informed. I had a look at the horse riding photoshoot and her interview about her circle of friends in common with Felipe's. I have even seen an article with pictures of thelma in Thailand and Cabo Verde. Even in the Philiphines, and she was smiling to the camera. Erika much less if not at all.

You are mistaken and obviously you are not well-informed. Those were paparazzi photos in Asturias while horseback riding (I believe she was wearing a hat w/ a ponytail and a green top w/ boots) and not photoshoot. Telma never gave an interview, but she was only asked about the circle of friends of the prince and gave a short answer; all of the quotes we read from her were all run-ins with the paparazzi. The photos of Indonesia (not Thailand) during the tsunami (walking in the street wearing white long sleeves) and Cape Verde (going down the elevator and having dinner w/ a male friend) were also paparazzi shots, and yes they followed her all the way there. And yes there were articles about her assignment in Banda Aceh, Indonesia which they even put her on magazine covers ( I believe Hola). All of these paparazzi shots we've been talking about should be in the archives of this forum and maybe someone who has more time can post some of the horseback riding, Indonesia and Cape Verde photos since those were the ones you mentioned.

Maybe you think she did photoshoots and interviews because the press actually give space to her in magazines and newspapers even putting her on the cover. As I've said here time and time again, I really don't understand why they're so obsessed and fascinated with her. I mean I can understand if she gets followed in Spain, but for them to go all the way to Cape Verde and Indonesia? Can you believe she even landed on the 100 Sexiest list 2 years ago?

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

Maybe Telma would have been more successful in case of taking those individuals to court who chased her etc (she even claimed to have been in physical danger) instead of trying to ban the media from taking pictures (I believe Heather Mills succeeded with a similar lawsuit against a paparazzo although the background is completely different). At least a small victory could have been important and a valuable signal to the media. Now she has to pay the cost, will be ridiculed and continued to be photographed, the opposite of what she wanted to achieve.

Again, there is a public interest in her but there must be a balance. To declare her a private person whose picture must not be taken does not fit into today's media age. All over the world, courts would be flooded with lawsuits from people, some of them trying to impose a ban with the one purpose of being spoken of. At the end of the day it should come down to media self control, not overstepping some borders, in case of problems there are talks between the respective person, lawyers and the media but out of court, this is how it works in most countries but obviously not in Spain. I wonder if Telma had good advisers or if she was simply guided by her anger or stubborness.

 

[PrincessAna]

She claimed about things that might happen in the future (that they might cause her physical danger) not in the present. Personally, the only complaint that can be made to the press is the censorship. Here in England the press is rather free and they can publish details that are now hidden in boxes. Too bad. It should be ilegal to acuse media that actually had never published pictures of her. Actually half of the 54 she accused. That's why she will have to pay extra 50,000 euros to cover media's lawyers.

Where is she going to get the 50,000 euros??? She is currently unemployed, same as the father of her daughter. They are not married as the registry is made public by law.

I think the elite press treated her with summum respect adn that the censorship is still present nowadays. The Royal Family will always be 'sacred' for them.

 

[donnaK]

Where is she going to get the 50,000 euros??? She is currently unemployed, same as the father of her daughter. They are not married as the registry is made public by law.

Enrique is unemployed ? Nobody seems to know for sure if he quit the Red Cross or not.
MSF and Red Cross are paying quite well. She probably saved quite a bit of money the last few years since she worked/lived in 3rd world countries mostly. But still it's a pity that she has to use her hard earned money to pay the legal fees.

 

[planetcher]

I disagree with the judge completely. If public figures like Caroline of Monaco (who even went to the Human Rights court to argue that privacy is a basic human right and that's why she won even at her status) and the sue-happy Maxima and Willem-Alexander and children can enjoy their privacies without being photographed why can't someone like Telma who's only "crime" is being the Princess of Asturias' sister have the same right? I think it's just so sad because she did not choose to be in this position. Maybe she should do a Caroline and take it to the Human Rights court and I'm pretty sure she will win it no doubt. I still don't understand why she's a press favorite: newspapers, magazines, and even TV. As I don't live in Spain, does she really sell magazines?

 

[princess leonor]

I know this is not the right place to post this, but the thread on Letizia's family is closed and this is major last-minute news so I hope it's ok if I put it here.
newspaper 20minutos has just released news that Telma's lawyer is going to appeal against the judges sentence!
Good for her, I hope she goes all the way to the European Court!

Is it maybe a good idea to open a entire new thread on this court proceedings? There are so many people giving their opinion and will probably continue to, that it might be better to open another thread, so that this one can remain for the actual news around her family?

 

[Little_star]

I find the outcome of this case ludicrous but it doesn't surprise me because I think Telma's decision to sue multiple media outlets, many of which have not even printed news about her, was inevitably going to be her downfall.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

Sister of Spanish princess pursues court battle against the media : Europe World

I doubt the appeal will do her any favours. So far Telma has only reached the opposite of what she was aiming for - lots of press coverage and her picture all over the papers. She has been nominated for the "Premio Limon" that is given to people with a bad media relationship by a journalistic circle and probably won't win any popularity contests in Spain in the near future. I feel that Telma started her lawsuit from a wrong angle but I am no expert. I hope she and her advisers have a reason to believe the appeal will be successful otherwise everything will only get worse for her.

 

[Marengo]

well, you can' t blame her for trying I suppose. I have seen some clips of the Spanish press and I must say that I was somewhat shocked to see just how intruisive they are. Almost like British paparazzi IMO.

I supopose Telma can take this up to the European court in Luxembourg too, like Princess Caroline of Monaco did (and who won).

 

[RhapsodyBrat]

but that would probably her last resort, no? she's probably going to put all her efforts to win her case in Spain, before going there (and i do hope it doesn't come to that point).

 

[Marengo]

I am not sure how the legal system works in Spain, but I think that once you are done in your own country, with appeals and such, you can take it to Luxembourg. I hope she wins in her Spain but if she doesn' t, I do hope she will take it there and wins her case, IMO the Spanish media is far too intruisive. Hopefully it will create a precedence in Spain which will benifit others.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

well, you can' t blame her for trying I suppose. I have seen some clips of the Spanish press and I must say that I was somewhat shocked to see just how intruisive they are. Almost like British paparazzi IMO.

I supopose Telma can take this up to the European court in Luxembourg too, like Princess Caroline of Monaco did (and who won).

I am not saying that she shouldn't try, I only hope that she is well prepared and with the right strategy.

For those who are interested or want to compare here is a summary of the Caroline of Monaco case from 2004:
Princess Caroline of Monaco wins privacy ruling | OUT-LAW.COM

 

[Empress]

At the end of the day, it was not Telma who decided to marry into the Royal Family. She is in fact a private citizen, and jsut because the media, or other citizens, want information about her, does not give them the right to have it. She should have the expectation of privacy, and not be hounded just because of who her sister is. As far as I know she neither seeks, nor wishes for, the spot light, and I think that it is absolutely abhorrent that she must deal with the media shoving a camera in her face.

I can't say it enough. We've been so jaded by the press that we have an expectation of entitlement to know everything about anyone that we wish, and it IS NOT A RIGHT. What is a right, is privacy, unless you've chosen to marry into or become, a high profile family/person, and seek out the media. And even then, those people should have some privacy.

 

[Winnie]

I have tried to put myself in Letizia's place, seeing what my marriage did to my family and just would feel awful. I sincerely hope that all this silliness doesn't spoil the family relationship. It is just not correct. The Spanish press need something else to worry about.