Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has obtained from justice the withdrawal of a passage from a biography which infringed her privacy, according to a judgment rendered on Friday consulted by AFP. The Nanterre court ruled that this passage was “seriously detrimental to respect for the right to privacy” of the Prime Minister and was “only intended to arouse public curiosity about her alleged sexual orientation” .
The book in question is The Secret, by journalist Bérengère Bonte, published on May 4 by Editions de l’Archipel. They will have to pay Elisabeth Borne 1 euro in damages and 2,000 euros in legal costs.
“A disproportionate restriction on freedom of expression”
Elisabeth Borne had taken the publisher to court to remove several passages from this book in the event of reprinting and because of invasions of her privacy. The Prime Minister “does not want to submit to the tyranny of transparency, it is consistent with what she has always been, a discreet woman”, pleaded her lawyer at the end of May.
The court did not accede to all of his requests. He explained in the judgment delivered on Friday that the deletion of certain other passages “would constitute a disproportionate restriction on freedom of expression”. Are concerned remarks on a supposed “anorexia” of Elisabeth Borne between 2012 and 2015.
The publishing house announced in a press release that it wanted to appeal. “This decision is only one step in a fight for the freedom to investigate which must be that of journalists,” she said. The copies of the book containing the offending passage remain in bookstores “until the stock is exhausted”, recalled the publisher.