Irish Daily Star to shut?

I'm sure there's others who have posted similiar or starkly contrasting opinions, but I want to vent on this anyway.

Is there a belief among some (especially those defending the Royal Family in all of this) that these pictures will not be seen should the Star not publish them? At this stage (and in fact within minutes of the news breaking originally), the pictures would have been widely available online. Suing anyone but the original photographer and the paper who originally published them is redundant, since all it does is continue to publicize the pictures and urge people to buy the paper and search them out online.

Meanwhile, the papers are put into a situation where they have to discuss a story without actually being able to publish the images which are causing the stir, knowing people will simply go and look them up online anyway. The print media faces enough troubles competing with digital distribution without having to encourage people to seek out the pictures online. Once they are in the public domain, they may as well publish them; the damage is done already, and it's stupid for the papers to have to discuss something that is freely available but they aren't allowed publish on "moral" grounds. It's like when everyone knew that Ryan Giggs was behind the injuction a few years back; it made print media redundant because they weren't allowed talk about something people already knew.

On top of all that, why should an Irish newspaper treat English royalty at all different than any other celebrity, pictures of whom appear in papers like this every day. Why should the French? Or the Italians? They aren't our monarchy (not a dig at previous historic problems by the way, just a general statement of fact). Why should we respect them any more than the royalty of any other country? What makes them so infallible in our media circles?

I get that we want to believe in the importance of privacy, but there's a direct co-relation between an increase in fame and a decrease in privacy. Kate and Will have lived the last few years of their lives in the public eye, moreso than pretty much anyone else in this region of the world. They have been actively seeking press attention. Yes, it is horrible that someone took pictures of her topless, but surely this was always going to happen eventually. If you're such a high profile person, and someone who is part of a "high class" group, then sunbathing topless on a balcony is always going to be a risk. Yes, the cameraman invaded privacy, but if it was me, if I decided to start sunbathing topless, I'd make sure I have thirty foot walls around me, and that there was ZERO chance of one of the hundreds of press who follow me round all day long was going to see it. At the stage of earning the title "Future Queen of England", I think I'd just give up on maintaining a good tan line for fear something like this would happen. :P

later12 wrote: »

I think the first part of your argument is reasonable but not this. There's no good reason for publishing pictures of an individual whilst undressed, when they do not know they are being photographed. That's unfair on a very basic, human level.

Which is why I said...

Yes, it is horrible that someone took pictures of her topless, but surely this was always going to happen eventually.

Yeah, it's horrible that it could happen. But surely they should know that's what the press are like nowadays. Given how intimate they are with the media, did they not think eventually someone would try and get such pictures? Given how much focus Pippa's clothed bum got at the wedding, did they not realise that the paparazzi would be seeking out pictures of her as scantily clad as possible.

I'm not defending the taking of the pictures. I'm more confused as to why they seem so shocked that...
1. There would be attempts to get such pictures.
2. Print media outside England would cover the story in full detail, and not respect their desires to publish such pictures that were widely and easily available days ago.

The "good" reason (and I use that word very, very loosely) is that people obviously want to see these pictures. They wouldn't be making such big waves in the news otherwise. The french magazine published them because they knew the fine would be nothing compared to the revenue generated. At that stage, surely we stop blaming the media and start blaming people, because if there wasn't a desire for pictures of naked celebrities, then they wouldn't publish them.

Meanwhile, Kate should know better than to sunbath topless on a balcony that's in anyway exposed; yes, it was private property and the photographer still had to get the pictures from a mile away, but he was still able to get them, and in a way, Kate needs to take responsibility for that fact.

As tough as it may be for her, her privacy (not the right to privacy but just her privacy) unfortunately went out the window when her wedding was broadcast to millions of people around the globe and she joined one of the most press-covered families in the world. Its rotten for her, but these pictures were always, ALWAYS going to be desired by the media and were always going to be a major danger when she went sunbathing.