Ritt’s writ saga rumbles on

Date: 01/05/1997

Join us now as we return once again to Ritt's diary, the simple story of everyday Commission folk so sharply portraying life behind closed doors inside their Breydel headquarters.

Regular viewers will remember how last year our heroine, Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard shockingly revealed the workings of Commission meetings and let slip sensational corridor gossip, none of which Entre Nous can now recall.

Then, after a public fence-mending press conference alongside boss Jacques Santer, Ritt abandoned her plans to publish her money-spinning diary and be damned - but the Danish daily Politiken published it anyway. Now Ritt's writ asks for it to be damned. Will she succeed? Read on...

Judges in Denmark are considering what to do with Politiken's editor Tøger Seidenfaden after hearing a plea from his lawyer to drop the case, while Bjerregaard's lawyer has demanded the maximum six months in jail.

Whatever the outcome, it will not be the end of the matter: the Commissioner and her publisher are also suing for 700,000 ecu for unauthorised use of the diary's contents.

If Bjerregaard wins, she will be entitled to keep any compensation she is awarded - avoiding the fuss which forced her to stop taking cash for writing columns for Danish newspapers after joining the Commission.