UK press watchdog rejects Prince Harry's complaint over drugged wildlife article

Britain's press watchdog has rejected a complaint by Prince Harry over an article which said wild animals pictured in photos he posted on Instagram had been drugged and tied up. Picture: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Britain's press watchdog has rejected a complaint by Prince Harry over an article which said wild animals pictured in photos he posted on Instagram had been drugged and tied up. Picture: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Published Jan 30, 2020

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London - Britain's press watchdog has

rejected a complaint by Prince Harry over a tabloid newspaper

article which said wild animals pictured in photos he posted on

Instagram had been drugged and tied up.

Harry, Queen Elizabeth's grandson, posted the pictures he

had taken of African wildlife on his Instagram account, which

then had 5.6 followers, to mark Earth Day and highlight

conservation efforts.

But the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported last April that

the photos had not revealed the full story. It said the animals

involved had been tranquilised and that a picture of an elephant

in Malawi had been edited so that it was not possible to see

there was a rope around its hind legs.

"Drugged and tethered ... what Harry didn’t tell you about

those awe-inspiring wildlife photos," read the headline.

The prince argued the report was inaccurate because it

indicated he had intentionally misled the public to think that

he was a superior wildlife photographer who had captured the

pictures under dangerous circumstances, the Independent Press

Standards Organisation (IPSO) watchdog said.

Harry said his caption had made clear the animals were being

relocated as part of conservation efforts and that the photo had

only been edited to meet Instagram's formatting requirements.

However, the paper said Harry had not explained the

circumstances of the photo to his followers and that he had not

needed to crop the pictures in the way he had.

IPSO's complaints committee supported the paper's argument

and rejected Harry's claim that the article was inaccurate.

"The committee did not consider that it was significantly

misleading to report that the photographs posted on the

complainant’s Instagram account did not quite tell the full

story and that the complainant had not explained the

circumstances in which the photographs had been taken," it said.

Harry and his American wife Meghan have increasingly become

embroiled in conflict with Britain's tabloid newspapers.

Meghan is suing the Mail on Sunday over its publication of a

private letter she sent to her father, Thomas Markle, and Harry

has accused some newspapers of bullying his wife in the same way

they treated his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car

crash in 1997 as her limousine sped away from chasing paparazzi.

Earlier this month the couple, who are currently in Canada

with their baby son Archie, announced they would no longer use

their royal titles and were seeking an independent new life

based mainly in North America.

Last week, lawyers for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as

they are formally known, issued a warning to media not to use

paparazzi pictures of the couple.

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