Prince Harry Photos Published by the Sun

As you probably already know by now, pictures of Prince Harry naked in a Vegas hotel have been circulating the web for a few days now. Originally published by TMZ, an American gossip website, earlier this week the photos have been a hit on the internet. Oddly enough, until yesterday, no British paper had published the photos, the editors of the newspapers agreed with each other that they would not publish the photos. Some of the editors believe that they need to be on extra good behaviour as Lord Leveson is currently writing up his report with how to deal with the British press. They believe that by publishing the photos, which man y people believe are a complete invasion of privacy, will prove to Leveson that the press cannot regulate itself. Well it didn’t take long for one newspaper to break ranks; yesterday the Sun published the photos. This has angered some of the other editors, in one editor’s (anonymous) words; “they’ve just handed Leveson a loaded gun.” The Sun had two main arguments for publishing the photos: The first is that there is a public interest aspect, the fact that the images have been searched millions of times by Britons proves this. Secondly, they believe that since the pictures have been circulating online that there is no reason for the press not to print them.

The second argument is childish and quite frankly, stupid. Just because everyone else does something morally wrong, bad or illegal doesn’t mean you have to do it too. If all your friends shop lift, does that make it ok to shoplift? No. If everyone speeds, does that make speeding ok? No. Sorry to sound like someone’s mother, but it is a silly argument. The first is more difficult to attack, the public are certainly interested, but is it in the public’s interest to publish them? There is a fine, but important distinction between the two. Celebrities are entitled to a private life, without public scrutiny; there is a strong argument to be made that publishing of the photographs crossed the line between public and private life. Whatever the arguments, it will surely affect Leveson’s judgement.