UK Court Dismisses The Guardian's Appeal in Case on Non-Disclosure of Prince Philip's Will

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Civil Division of the UK Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed The Guardian's appeal in the case on the non-disclosure of the will of His late Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, which the UK High Court had ordered to keep classified for 90 years.

Prince Philip, the husband of UK Queen Elizabeth II, died on April 9, 2021, at the age of 99. In September 2021, the UK High Court ruled that the will of Prince Philip should remain sealed for 90 years to protect the privacy of the queen. The Guardian challenged the High Court's decision as violating the public interest in open justice and a perceived lack of transparency in which the assets of the Royal Family are distributed.

"GNM [Guardian news and media] wrongly assumes that the media has a legal right to attend and make submissions whenever a party applies for a hearing to be held in private... the media has no such legal right... For the reasons we have given, we would dismiss the appeal against the order that the PFD [the President of the Family Division] made," the Court of Appeal's judgment read.

The court cited "insatiable and highly intrusive" media's interest in Royal matters that would "simply fuel media curiosity" as the reason for the ruling, adding that the "benefits ordinarily gained by a public hearing would be wholly disproportionate to the degree of media curiosity and the extent of the consequent intrusion into matters which are essentially private."