Kensington Palace Scandal: Media Outrage and Trust Betrayal (REUTERS)

2024-03-15 00:55:00
Media and news agencies around the world targeted Kensington Palace for spreading a fake photo of Kate Middleton: “It is no longer a reliable source” (REUTERS)

Media and news agencies from around the world agreed this Thursday that the recent actions of Kensington Palace in disseminating a false photo of Princess Kate Middleton with her children is unacceptable and results in a violation of its work standards and the trust that their clients and readers place their trust in them.

The director of Agence France-Presse, Phil Chetwynd, commented in dialogue with BBC Radio that, following a meeting with colleagues from around the world, it was concluded that the actions of the Princess of Wales’s press team last Sunday “clearly violated” its rules. When asked regarding the reliability of this source, he assured that “not at all. As in any case, when a source lets you down, the bar is raised.”

On the occasion of Mother’s Day, on February 10, an image of her with her children was published on Middleton’s social networks. In a few minutes, Internet users began to notice obvious touch-ups on the clothes and hands of the protagonists, which led to an apology message in which, supposedly, the Princess herself admitted having made the alterations.

The image released by Kensington Palace that fueled theories regarding the Princess (instagram.com/princeandprincessofwales)

“Like many amateur photographers, I experiment with editing from time to time. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion caused by the family photo we shared yesterday. “I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day,” the statement reads.

However, this did not prevent the agencies, which had disseminated the image as true content, from having to remove it and issue a notice to all editors in the world. Chetwynd explained that the publication of a “kill notice” for a manipulated photograph is a rare but necessary event in a case of such magnitude.

Some of the tweaks identified by users on the networks

Robert Jobson, ABC News contributor on royal issues, commented, for his part, that the actions of the Crown only added more mystery to Middleton’s disappearance following her sudden hospitalization and emergency stomach operation.

“The reality is that, now, conspiracy theories have exploded. Everything they’ve been saying has clearly been proven to be true… Where is Kate? Is it really a photograph? “If they can play with Charlotte’s hand, how do we know it’s even Kate’s face?” he noted, adding: “If Kensington Palace’s intention was to quell all this crazy Internet speculation, then it hasn’t worked.”

To do so, Jobson explained, the royals must “publish the original photograph in which, perhaps, Kate is looking in the wrong direction or Charlotte is not paying attention or Louis is not smiling… it doesn’t matter.”

Another collaborator of the medium, Victoria Murphy, also described this controversy as a mistake by the palace. “Editing the image in any way was a particularly foolish mistake because this is a moment in which the Palace should have known that people would be scrutinizing it in great detail,” he said although he stressed that, from his point of view, “I don’t think that “The royalty intended to hide nothing important with these editions.”

Questions continue regarding Kate, who has hardly been seen since her emergency operation (AFP)

In any case, journalists agreed that the ultimate responsibility lies with William and Kate’s press teams, who should have paid more attention to the publication.

“I think the most important thing here is, really, that Kate has done nothing wrong and William has done nothing wrong. They pay a lot of money to professionals to run the communications team and ultimately they should have had the strength of character to turn around and say, ‘We can’t publish that because if we do, people are going to start asking questions, not just regarding the integrity of our photographs… How are they going to believe the information we are also releasing regarding private events?’ It’s regarding integrity and integrity is crucial when you’re faced with a situation as serious as this,” Jobson concluded.

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