Boardroom row looms amid closure fears for newspaper

A boardroom row is on the cards after Independent News and Media warned it would not be happy to see the Irish Daily Star shut down.

IN&M called the decision "disproportionate".

It comes after a St James’s Palace spokesman for the Royal family announced lawyers will go to court tomorrow seeking damages and an injunction against further publication of topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge.

“Independent News & Media (INM) believes that a call to close the Irish Daily Star, which employs over 120 staff (directly and indirectly), is disproportionate to a poor editorial decision that occurred without reference to either shareholder,” the company said.

“INM believes that the circumstances that led to the regrettable decision by the Irish Daily Star to re-publish pages from the French magazine ’Closer’ warrant immediate investigation and steps are already under way in this regard.”

The legal action by the British royal family aims to prevent further publication against French Closer magazine’s parent company.

Closer is published by the Mondadori media group which also publishes Italian gossip magazine Chi which has promised a 26-page special edition featuring images of the royal couple on holiday but the palace said no decision has been taken on separate legal proceedings in Italy.

The case will begin in Paris in the afternoon and is expected to be held in public.

Alfonso Signorini, the editor of Chi, which is owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, said: "The fact that these are the future rulers of England makes the article more interesting and topical.

“This is a deserving topic because it shows in a completely natural way the daily life of a very famous, young and modern couple in love.”

Today, French Closer were defending publication.

A statement on the magazine’s website, said: “The photos we selected are by no means degrading.

“They show a young couple on vacation, beautiful, love, modern in their normal life.”

In England, the palace spokesman said: ``The court hearing is in France tomorrow when the official proceedings will start at a court in Paris as the papers have been served.

“It is the first airing and we will be seeking an injunction from them using the pictures and it will lead to a longer court case where damages will be sought.”

French Closer, which is run by a different company from the British version, caused outrage earlier this week when it published the images of the couple enjoying private holiday moments at Chateau d’Autet, near Aix-en-Provence.

The Irish Daily Star's decision to publish the photographs caused consternation among its joint owners, Northern and Shell and Independent News and Media.

Northern and Shell chairman Richard Desmond said: “I am very angry at the decision to publish these photographs and am taking immediate steps to close down the joint venture.

“The decision to publish these pictures has no justification whatever and Northern and Shell condemns it in the strongest possible terms.”

An Independent News and Media spokesman added: “The decision by the Irish Daily Star to republish pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge from the French magazine Closer was regrettable and in poor taste.

“Independent News and Media had no prior knowledge of the decision to publish.”

The newspaper’s editor, Michael O’Kane, appeared on television yesterday to defend publication but was unavailable for comment today.

Former British prime minister John Major backed the decision to take legal action over the pictures and likened the photographer’s actions to those of a “peeping Tom”.

“I think it’s absolutely right, so that people in the future know where the boundaries should be,” he told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show.

“The boundaries have plainly been crossed. I don’t think we need minced words about these photographs – the way they have been obtained is tasteless.

“It’s the action of a peeping Tom. In our country we prosecute peeping Toms.

“That is what they have done, they have been peeping on long lenses from a long way away. they are very distasteful.”

He said he “thoroughly applauds” the British press for refusing to use the photographs.