Papers heeded Palace over nude Harry images

Prince Harry’s naked pictures were absent from UK newspapers yesterday because editors were respecting past rulings on privacy and their own press watchdog, according to a leading lawyer.

The public have been able to read about the prince’s antics in a Las Vegas hotel suite during a “strip pool” party that left him holding his genitals while standing in front of a naked woman.

But to see the pictures, they have had to access the US-based gossip website TMZ that broke the story, or scores of other internet pages across the world .

UK papers complied with a request by St James’s Palace, made via the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), to respect Harry’s privacy as the images were from a private hotel room.

Media commentators said the newspapers have been “neutered” by Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry into media ethics.

But media lawyer Mark Stephens said editors realised they had to comply with the wishes of St James’s Palace: “It’s because they were asked not to by the PCC and they accepted it was the better way to go. We have seen many examples, going right back to Mrs Simpson when she was being courted by the former king when the press declined to publish a widely available story. What we have is a story running on social media which the reasonable media here haven’t taken up.”

He added that a number of high-profile court cases involving celebrities had changed the way the press handle privacy.

Former News of the World executive Neil Wallis said he would have published the photos before the Leveson Inquiry and it had “neutered” the press.