Tag: prince george

Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge are possibly the two most privacy-obsessed royal figures we’ve ever seen. For most royal figures, there’s a trade-off: being photographed in public, whether at public events or out in the public sphere, is okay, especially considering the taxpayers are funding your lifestyle. Not okay? Having paparazzi break into royal properties, etc. The Cambridges have always played around with that traditional understanding, and it’s well known that William’s press machine often bullies and threatens photographers and media outlets for publishing photos of or stories about his family in the public sphere. Early this morning, Kensington Palace sent out a lengthy letter excoriating the paparazzi and the UK press for the lengths they’re going to get photos of Prince George.

Kensington Palace has issued a letter on the security and ethical issues around unauthorised photos of children http://t.co/bCmIHoBtcl

— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) August 14, 2015

Kensington Palace has issued one of its strongest warnings to date about photographing Prince George, detailing “disturbing” incidents where members of the paparazzi have gone to extreme lengths to photograph the young boy. The palace described a series of “increasingly dangerous” tactics used by members of the paparazzi in order to obtain images of the young prince. Just last week, a photographer was discovered in the boot of a rented car, where he was hiding out in an attempt to shoot photos with a long lens through a small gap in the vehicle, the palace reports.

The palace said in a statement: “Already concealed by darkened windows, he took the added step of hanging sheets inside the vehicle and created a hide stocked with food and drinks to get him through a full day of surveillance, waiting in hope to capture images of Prince George. Police discovered him lying down in the boot of the vehicle attempting to shoot photos with a long lens through a small gap in his hide. It is of course upsetting that such tactics – reminiscent as they are of past surveillance by groups intent on doing more than capturing images – are being deployed to profit from the image of a two-year old boy. The worry is that it will not always be possible to quickly distinguish between someone taking photos and someone intending to do more immediate harm.”

This palace lists the following incidents which have happened in recent months:

• on multiple occasions used long range lenses to capture images of The Duchess playing with Prince George in a number of private parks;
• monitored the movements of Prince George and his nanny around London parks and monitored the movements of other household staff;
• photographed the children of private individuals visiting The Duke and Duchess’s home;
• pursued cars leaving family homes;
• used other children to draw Prince George into view around playgrounds;
• been found hiding on private property in fields and woodland locations around The Duke and Duchess’s home in Norfolk;
• obscured themselves in sand dunes on a rural beach to take photos of Prince George playing with his grandmother;
• placed locations near the Middleton family home in Berkshire under steady surveillance

[From HuffPo]

While many of these incidents are clearly creepy, illegal and unseemly, there are some much bigger issues at play. The creepy and illegal incidents need to stop, of course. Let me just say that at the start. It’s disturbing to think of all of that attention being focused on George. Now, it does seem like KP is basically saying that George should only be photographed when William and Kate have decided that he should be photographed. Which… I don’t agree with that. If George is in the public sphere (a public park, a public beach, a Middleton-approved and staged photo op), then it’s fine. I also think that William and Kate are using George as a shield for their larger problems with the press, and they don’t want THEIR comings and goings and “private country life” analyzed too much (because they’ll look lazy).

There’s now a heated discussion amongst royal reporters, with Express’s Richard Palmer basically having a Twitter meltdown – go here to read some of his tweets.