Princess Diana and France’s Right to Privacy Laws

In Jane Birkin’s Munkey Diaries, she confessed that during a meeting with the late Princess Diana, she once told her to “come and live in Paris, that the press would leave her alone…”

Known as the “The People’s Princess” and “The Princess of Hearts,” Princess Diana was widely idolized for her humanitarian work and activism worldwide.  

On the 31st August 1997, in the early hours of the morning, tragedy hit millions when Princess Diana passed away in hospital after being seriously injured in a high-speed car crash in a tunnel at the Pont de l’Alma. Diana, her partner Dodi Fayed and the Mercedes driver, Henri Paul, were being pursued by fleets of paparazzi on motorcycles, tailing the car to get a picture of the Princess of Wales. Though the primary cause of the crash was determined by the high alcohol levels discovered in the chauffeur’s bloodstream, the incident went on to speak to generations to come, particularly on the matter of privacy laws and the modus operandi of paparazzi worldwide. 

But despite the course of history, on what grounds did Jane Birkin have for offering her amicable advice?  

In France, since the 1970s, the right to privacy has been enshrined in Article 9 of the French civil code. This law, known as the droit à l’image et respect de la vie privée (or “image rights and respect for private life”), grants individuals a right of protection over their private life with infractions eligible for legal action. Images shared online of others, under French law, must be authorized by the photographed individual. Exceptions to the law include freedom of expression and artistic, as well as cultural expression grounds for circulating images. 

A lot can be said for the French-termed images volées, what might be known as pap-shots to English speakers. For an image to be taken and shared for trade without permission, it is essentially stolen, considering Article 9. 

Offering protection against images volées in France, a paparazzo can be fined up to €45,000 and risks one year’s imprisonment for a deliberate offense. Following Diana’s death in February 2006, however, three of the nine paparazzi involved in the chase — Jacques Langevin, Christian Martinez and Fabrice Chassery — were fined a symbolic, yet meager, €1 each for their invasion of privacy. While in practice, the fines may appear to be more cautionary than actual sanctions, France remains a country with strict privacy laws and arguably fewer paparazzi functioning than others.  

Following the event, in the year 2000, France introduced new regulations limiting paparazzi against taking pictures of “untried defendants wearing handcuffs,” and a ban on media exhibiting images of crime and/or violence that would “jeopardize the dignity of the person portrayed.” These restrictions were understood to be in response to public condemnation of the paparazzi’s behavior at the time of Princess Diana’s passing and with explicit pictures of Paris terrorist bomb victims which were circulated by French media in the 1990s.  

Former editor of Paris Match, Alain Genestar, spoke out about the new laws arguing that they were infringements on press freedom. “We are being asked to divert our lenses while CNN and every other European newspaper will show the full reality,” he admitted to a press conference in 2000. “We will not be content with showing a shattered window to illustrate a terrorist bombing.” 

France’s staunch privacy laws undeniably place obstacles in the way of paparazzi and, by extension, media corporations, and yet the protection of individual liberties seems to outweigh this criticism. As we have witnessed over time, the press still shares a wide range of imagery, with some paparazzi continuing to risk the fines of their work for one exposé, covering government to celebrity privacy for public consumption. It begs the question, then, do the laws continue to work from day to day?  

Today, the location of the 1997 car incident has been transformed not far from the tunnel to commemorate Princess Diana and serve as a reminder about the incident, including the consequences of the paparazzi. The Flamme de la Liberté has been turned into a monument that is now associated with the late Princess of Wales. In her honor, it continues to be adorned with bouquets, locks and pictures. The monument has, in effect, become a memorial. Further to this, the site of the Flame of Liberty was renamed “Place Diana” in 2019.   

For Princess Diana, a life in the public eye meant that even France’s right to privacy laws were not enough to protect the most photographed woman in the world. But despite the tragedy surrounding the Princess’ untimely death, France has pushed privacy laws further into focus and scrutiny. Robust privacy protections against image misuse, grounded in Article 9, serve as a reminder of the enduring importance of safeguarding personal freedoms — especially in a world where modern technology makes methods of intrusion easier than ever.