If anyone doubts that the royal family still rules in the United
Kingdom...just ask the newspaper editors who have been asked not to go to press
with photos of naked Prince Harry in their pages.
Clarence House has
specifically requested that British publications not print or post the pics of
the 27-year-old's royal bum online due to the implied privacy violation that
occurred when a visitor to Harry's Las Vegas hotel suite snapped a couple of cell
phone pics.
Wait...can they do that?
Lady Gaga thinks whoever took
those pics is a "s--tty friend"
Not legally, but even the
notoriously raunchy London tabloids are laying off.
"The royal family can ask
to deny the right of the photos being published, but it's more of the British
media self-policing and being afraid to print them," Rory Carroll, U.S.
West Coast correspondent for The Guardian, tells E! News. "In this
climate, with the Leveson Inquiry [into press ethics], there's been so much focus
on the media, especially the tabloids and their excesses, like the hacking
scandal—it's made everyone much more skittish."
The family, which has
confirmed that the cheeky pics were indeed of Harry enjoying a "private
holiday" in Vegas, is said to have made the blackout request to the Press
Complaints Commission, citing the third clause of the PCC Editor's Code of
Practice: "It is unacceptable to photograph individuals in private places
without their consent." (The PCC is not a legal body, but a regulatory
agency.)
"I think we're seeing
more restraint from the press than we would have seen a few years ago,"
Carroll said. "Five or 10 years ago, there would have been a gleeful rush
on the part of many newspapers to splash these photos on their pages. And the
fact that they've been hesitating reflects the climate of questions and a bit
of uncertainty to what they can and cannot get away with, what the public would
or would not accept."
Last year, a hacking scandal
brought down the century-old, News Corp-owned News of the World and led to the
arrests of several top staffers. Though the company denied it, there was also
speculation that the controversy prompted Rupert Murdoch to step down from the
boards of the U.K.'s NI Group, Times Newspaper Holdings and News Corp Investments.
Five other Harry situations
Not that the technically
voluntary embargo means that ladies and gents in the U.K. are out of luck if
they want to see Prince Harry's bare backside—so long as they don't just read
newspapers or only peruse British websites, that is.
The royal ban "has zero
impact in terms of keeping a cap on the news," Carroll confirmed.
"There's no way to stop a story like this. The genie is out of the bottle
and Buckingham Palace is aware of that. I don't see what they can gain by keeping
these stories out of the British press. For the Brits in London or Edinburgh,
TMZ is just one click away."
"If the public wants to
see them, they've seen them already," he added. "I think there's two
things the papers are weighing here—one is the effect of publishing them on
their reputation. Secondly, they're weighing how many more copies they would
sell by publishing the photos. I'm sure that's been the question that's
dominating."
Lady Gaga must have been
inspired—she flashed her breasts!
The bottom line vs. royal
anger over exposing Harry's bottom? Hmm...
Because so many people can see
the photos online for free, "the opportunity is lost to publish the photos
exclusively," Carroll said. "If the photos were exclusive, I think
[the papers] would have done so. But now the commission of publishing the
photos is minor, so they aren't willing to taint their reputation."
He noted that the relative
amount of restraint the British press has been showing lately harkens back to
the days following the death of Harry's mum, Princess Diana, who was killed in
a car crash while her driver was fleeing paparazzi.
Remember when Prince Harry was
just hanging out in Vegas with Ryan Lochte?
"When Diana died,"
Carroll said, "the tabloid press was very defensive because paparazzi were
blamed for having precipitated the car crash. There was a lot of hostility
towards the media. Tabloid editors were saying, 'Never again will we dabble our
fingers in the stuff of other people's souls.'
It was a kinder, gentler period of pursuing celebrities and stalking
families with paps.
"And I think that period
lasted about five minutes."
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