I am no monarchist. But when some jerk takes a picture of Princess Kate’s wind-exposed posterior and a newspaper actually publishes it, I am outraged.
I can guess the photographer’s motive. Money. He figured someone somewhere would pay a bundle for the shot.
But as a former newspaper editor, I can’t imagine why the editor published it. Was it a slap in the face to the British? Was the picture’s publication meant as a provocation, perhaps?
I hope it’s something less sinister. I hope the German editor was driven only by a desire for increased readership.
I know there is a mass market for these pictures, although I don’t know anyone who actually belongs to that readership group.
Who, for example, buys a publication to look at revealing photos of Mylie Cyrus? And why?
Is it titillation that motivates them? Or are they driven by envy and get pleasure from publications that embarrass the rich and famous?
Whatever the allure that keeps them in business, the paparazzi seem to be thriving.
Celebrities in America are fighting back, and states are contemplating laws to protect their privacy. California has actually passed a law to shield the stars’ children from intruding photographers.
There should be international laws to keep the paparazzi in check.
It’s all very well to justify this kind of trash as “free speech,” but I don’t buy that argument. It is not just disgusting; it is dangerous. The paparazzi killed Princess Diana. I’m sure you remember that horrible tragedy.
I don’t know what legal recourse, if any, is available to Prince William and Princess Kate (shown at right arriving in New Zealand with baby George).
I understand Prince William has filed a criminal complaint against a French magazine that earlier published pictures of Kate sunbathing while on vacation.Perhaps German law provides for court action against the magazine that published the Duchess of Cambridge’s windblown picture.
And there’s something else the royal couple can do.
They can refrain from visiting countries where their privacy is not protected, and countries that permit the publication of pictures that embarrass and humiliate them.
Indeed, I would suggest that British subjects strike these countries off their vacation list. It was money that drove the photo’s publication. Perhaps money – or the loss of it – will motivate governments to better protect the privacy of their visitors.
Click for more on the California law.
