« "One-man Think Tanks": how the 2010 intake forced their way into the papers | Main | Daniel Kawczynski MP writes to Sir Richard Branson urging him to drop his West Coast Rail protest »

Louise Mensch defends Sun's decision to print naked photographs of Prince Harry but nearly all Tory MPs are silent on issue

By Tim Montgomerie
Follow Tim on Twitter

A search of Twitter reveals very little comment from Tory MPs on the naked photographs of Prince Harry that have been circulating across the internet for the last 48 hours and which now appear on the front page of The Sun. The screenshot below comes from the Sky News website. The text below the censored Sun front page reveals that Sky is continuing to respect the wishes of the Royal family that the photographs not be published;

Screen Shot 2012-08-24 at 08.16.47

Louise Mensch went on to the Today programme this morning to defend The Sun's decision to publish. She argued that was a clear public interest in what The Sun has done. The Royal family is funded by taxpayers, she said, and there were "security and judgment" issues in Prince Harry inviting "stangers" to his Las Vegas hotel room. It could have been a "honey trap" situation, she said. The outgoing Tory MP for Corby also told Radio 4 listeners that she was "chilled" by the request from the Press Complaints Commission for newspapers not to publish. She hoped that the press would stand up for its freedoms in the post-Leveson era. After her interview she Tweeted: "Must have full press freedom, without regulation, notwithstanding whatever Lord Justice #Leveson might recommend."

Damian Collins MP, a member of the Culture, Media and Select Committee, Tweeted a few minutes ago: "Harry is a senior royal so there's clear public interest in the Vegas pics. If this had been another public figure there would be no debate.".

Comments

You must be logged in using Intense Debate, Wordpress, Twitter or Facebook to comment.