The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Wednesday 13 October 2004

Royalty and the Media

The debate of exactly what or who rules the world changes depending on who it is you ask.  Some will say America, some will say money, some will say greed and the cynical will say, idiots.   To me, it seems that none of the above can lay claim to that title, which must surely belong to the world's media.   

What other non-political force has the power to change the course of a war, influence political opinion, make great men and woman and just as easily break them down and defecate on them? Nothing.   And, while we would be lost without the information it provides us about what is going on the world or the enjoyment and the entertainment it brings to our lives, one has to ask at what cost to individual's privacy (and sanity) does it come?   We are terrified of letting the censorship worm into our daily lives in case we wake up some day in the future to an Orwellian world, but perhaps it is time that we at least scrutinise and define the boundaries of the ‘Freedom of the Press'. 

HRH Princess Caroline of Hanover's current case against the press has brought again to the forefront, the question of how much of a royal person's life does the public own?  Does bearing a royal title give the public a right to every waking minute of their life, including the media?  

Certainly no one can dispute that aside from the role of monarch, being royal isn't actually one of the worst positions in life.  Your digs are usually splendid, you don't have to be bothered with dreary chores like mowing the lawn or ironing (unless you insist) and you never have to think twice or thrice before handing your credit card over to complete a purchase.  For these and other perks, we the public also rightly expect them to earn their lifestyle, just as we have the right to challenge their behaviour if they are not living up to their role and performing an adequate number of duties annually. 

Personally, I can't see that Princess Caroline taking a private stroll with her children should be anyone's business but her own.  Nor for that matter, should Princess Madeleine of Sweden and her boyfriend Jonas have to worry about being photographed with telescopic lenses when they go to visit his parents.  I don't even want to spend a second thinking about the snap of Diana - could have been Fergie or both - leaving the colonic-irrigation clinic.  While I am sure that there are benefits to being clean inside and out, short of an ‘exclusive’ snap of a royal pap-smear or prostate check, I can think of few more personal situations. 

We were sure that the situation was all going to change when the world's most popular princess of the late 20th century, Diana, was killed in a car crash.  Most of us felt more than a tinge of guilt at buying those sensationalist gossip magazines or watching their equivalent on television.  Momentarily, we decided that enough was enough and that to some degree we hounded her to the grave because we couldn't get enough of any facet of her short, but famous life.  Smutty, ridiculous headlines would never tantalise us again.   

Yet, just last week, I noticed a well performing magazine with the headline 'Mary's Divorce Hell!’   No, our six-month’s married Princess is not about to divorce Prince Frederik, but rather the article was about the divorce of Mary’s brother and sister in-law, Denmark's Prince Joachim and Princess Alexandra.   Obviously, if the headline is anything to go by, Joachim and Alexandra's divorce is affecting Mary far more than it is the couple. 

Earlier this week, a paper reported that Crown Princess Mary appeared ‘gaunt’ at the Danish Opening of Parliament and that her weight was a cause for concern.  Today, another reports that she is, in fact, pregnant.  In the space of a few days, the Australian born Princess has transformed from a skeletal, unhealthy figure to a radiant mother-to-be! [Editorial Note: Gioff's article was written before the latest news about Mary's surgery] 

Sadly, it looks like the promises that we all made have slipped.  Sensationalist headlines still sell, regardless of their factual or speculative content and understandably, royalty like Princess Caroline have had enough.  The challenge facing both royalty and the media is finding a middle ground and establishing a boundary for what is actually newsworthy, as opposed to privacy invasion.  Of course, both have very different views at present as to what defines newsworthy.  

The likes of Princess Caroline appear to believe that only official events where she is ‘at work’ should be open to scrutiny by the media.  The media argues that public figures are fair game in whatever they do publicly.  Perhaps the crux of the problem is the incessant harassment faced by royalty and, for that matter, celebrities from the paparazzi.   Princess Caroline mightn’t mind so much if she was sure that a photograph of her shopping was just a harmless snap of doing something we all do, albeit ducking into more upmarket shops than most of us.  The trouble is, she really knows that is not the reason they are following her.  What they really want is for her to slip on dog poo and fall on her bum or throw up the lunch she had just enjoyed at a restaurant. The paparazzi are (perhaps subliminally) literally waiting for something negative to occur.  

One should also bear in mind that the one or two snaps we see in a magazine or newspaper aren’t usually the work of one lucky photographer who happened to be in the right place at the right moment.  There are often great numbers of photographers following their subject around on a daily basis, ever hopeful of capturing that shot. 

Sarah, Duchess of York’s father, Major Ronald Ferguson, no doubt berated himself when he was sprung on film leaving a brothel.  Apart from being utterly embarrassing for him and possibly jeopardising his future romantic performance due to post traumatic stress syndrome, I wonder if the photogrpaher/s thought about the effect the picture might have had on the Major’s wife and children? Was it a really a worthy news item?  It gave us something to giggle or despair about but really, it was only newsworthy for his wife.  The man was not royalty, nor for that matter a true celebrity.   He simply had a daughter who married a prince. 

One particularly disgusting and disturbing scene involved the media and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, not long after she had been stripped of her title and was suddenly at the mercy of the press.  Who could forget the image of the besieged princess trying to get into the back seat of a car, obviously distressed by the moment?  As she put her head in her hands to hide, a photographer yelled at her, ‘Why don’t you put your head up and act like a fucking princess!’    

Does any decent person deserve to be spoken to in such a way? 

What ever transpires as a result of Princess Caroline of Hanover’s case, it is time that a law is introduced to define when a public figure’s life is there own and when it is not.   It’s a difficult question and compromise will surely have to play a part in any resolution.  While it is very unlikely that royalty and the media will ever be best friends, there is simply no reason why the relationship cannot be at least cordial or even amicable.  After all, the two rely on each other.  We should also never forget that all of us who buy newspapers and magazines are partly responsible for what appears in what we read.

- Gioffredo

P.S. I am taking a few weeks off and will be back on 10^th November.