Jaspan: ‘duty to our readers’
The Sunday Herald in Scotland has escaped legal censure after being the only British title to spell out the allegations against Prince Charles.
It has since emerged that the terms of an injunction brought out by a former royal servant against The Mail on Sunday do not apply north of the border.
Editor Andrew Jaspan said: “On Saturday morning, the Irish Independent had pulled everything together, the Sydney Morning Herald had done the same, as had La República and Corriere della Sera in Italy and some other papers. The whole world seemed to be doing it.
“We contacted the Palace on Saturday, told them what we’d seen of these different newspapers and gave them an indication of what we intended to do. They noted what we said and that was that.
“We also told Michael Fawcett’s lawyers what we’d seen on international websites and on newspapers abroad.
“The conclusion we came to was there was no truth in these allegations anyway, after talking to a number of people who had been close to Charles over the past 25 years. It was just building to a tabloid frenzy of rumour and gossip and we felt we had a duty to our readers to explain what it was actually about.”
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