KEY POINTS:
LONDON - The News International media group has banned its papers from using intrusive pictures of Prince William's girlfriend Kate Middleton who faced a phalanx of photographers on her 25th birthday today.
With speculation rife that the future king plans to propose to his long-time girlfriend, worldwide media interest in Middleton's every move has soared.
Pictures of her trying to escape prying paparazzi lenses outside her London apartment mirror the unrelenting attention given to William's mother Diana in the lead-up to her 1981 engagement to Prince Charles.
"We have imposed a ban on all News International publications printing paparazzi photos of Kate Middleton," said a spokeswoman for the group.
News International, part of Rupert Murdoch's media business, publishes The Sun and the News of the World tabloids, the world's biggest-selling English language newspapers, as well as the broadsheet Times and Sunday Times.
News International suffered embarrassment last year when a reporter from the News of the World pleaded guilty to plotting to tap the telephones of Britain's royal family.
News International's executive chairman Les Hinton is chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) code of practice committee.
The committee self-regulates media coverage that was sharply tightened after Diana's death in a 1997 Paris car crash with paparazzi on motorbikes in hot pursuit.
The News International spokeswoman said its staff photographers operate within the PCC code which says that everyone is entitled to respect for family life and it is unacceptable to photograph individuals in private places without their consent.
A spokesman for Prince William, second in line to the throne after his father Charles, said he welcomed the decision by News International.
"What Prince William wants more than anything else is for the paparazzi to stop harassing her," he added.
Middleton's lawyers have urged newspapers to show restraint. At the moment they are said to be preferring persuasion over any possible legal action.
Evening Standard royal reporter Robert Jobson, who has written a biography of Middleton, told Reuters: "She has shown poise and discretion, she looks the part and has dealt with the paparazzi with aplomb."
But he believed the current media fever about an imminent engagement had been "over-egged. I certainly don't think it will happen before William's 25th birthday in the summer."
- REUTERS
