Last but not least: paparazzi live longer

The German Federal Court of Justice is saving us from a possible celebrity photo ban. It ruled on Tuesday that celebrities cannot have press photos of their private lives banned as a preventative measure. The reason for the ruling was a lawsuit filed by Franziska "Goldfranzi" van Almsick. She suffered the same nasty fate as our media minister Moritz Leuenberger: a newspaper was pleased to show pictures of the former swimmer in swimming trunks. Her partner was also photographed. The couple had been secretly photographed on vacation on the beach and strolling through town in Sardinia, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. Van Almsick then managed to get the publishers sued not to publish the photos again. But that was not enough for her: she also demanded that the publishers refrain from showing pictures of her private everyday life in the future. The judges in Karlsruhe put a stop to this: It could not be judged in advance whether Almsick was entitled to a claim to refrain from publishing similar images. In each individual case, a balance had to be struck between the public's interest in information and the interest of the person depicted in protecting their privacy. How lucky we are - after all, we rely on being able to cheer up our dreary everyday lives as non-celebrities with pictures of Boris Becker with his new flame, Britney Spears at Starbucks or Martina Hingis at Sprüngli.