On November 10, 2015, the European Court of Human Rights (Court) ruled in Couderc and Hachette Filipacchi Associés v. France that a court decision against weekly newspaper Paris Match for publishing information about Prince Albert of Monaco’s private life violated Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the press release, the case concerned a newspaper article written about a woman known as Ms. Coste, who claimed that Prince Albert is the father of her son, and included a picture of the prince with the child. Having unsuccessfully tried to prevent publication of the article, the prince brought suit against Paris Match and won, with the French court finding that the article “fell within the most intimate sphere of love and family life and that it did not concern any debate of general interest.” The Court disagreed, deciding that the birth of a child “also falls within the public sphere, since it is in principle accompanied by a public statement (the civil-status document) and the establishment of a legal parent-child relationship.” The Court further noted that there was a public interest value in the article, as the prince was at that time known to be single and childless. Stressing the “symbolic role of a hereditary monarchy,” the Court found that the article did in fact raise valid questions about succession and dynasty and concluded that the “information contained in the article – the child’s existence – went beyond the private sphere, given the hereditary nature of the Prince’s functions as the Monegasque Head of State.”