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LONDON - The paparazzi was yesterday given the green light to photograph Prince William's girlfriend, Kate Middleton, when she was considered to have deliberately put herself in the public arena.
Sir Christopher Meyer, chairman of the British Press Complaints Commission, said that although he had requested the press to stop hounding Middleton outside her home, they were still entitled to pursue her in nightclubs.
"Going to a very public nightclub where you know paparazzis are there ... and you know what you are going into and you know that celebs go there to be photographed, that's a different order of things," he told the inquiry by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee into the self-regulation of the press. This year he sent out a "desist" notice at the time of her birthday, urging editors to draw their journalists back.
Yesterday a veteran tabloid photographer warned that the paparazzi's chasing of Middleton could lead to the same kind of accident that killed Princess Diana. Speaking of a recent media scrum, Arthur Edwards said: "This girl was going through hell - for what? For a picture, and it just wasn't worth it."
- INDEPENDENT
