Prince Harry complained to the UK press regulator about the Mail on Sunday‘s article about his Instagram photos, but the complaint was rejected.
The prince was upset over the April 2019 story, “Drugged and tethered…what Harry didn’t tell you about those awe-inspiring photos.” The story reported that Prince Harry’s Instagram photos of African wildlife “don’t quite tell the full story,” and that the prince didn’t disclose that the animals were tranquilized or tied.
Prince Harry’s representatives declined to comment to iMediaEthics. iMediaEthics has written to the Mail.
Prince Harry complained that the story suggested he misled people and it wasn’t necessary for him to have noted his photos were of sedated or tethered animals. Further he noted that the full photo was published on the Royal Family website and it explained the information of tranquilizing or tethering. IPSO explained:
“The complainant said the article was inaccurate as it reported that, by not making clear that the animals had been drugged and tethered, he had intentionally misled the public to give the impression that he was a superior wildlife photographer who had captured the images in dangerous circumstances. He said that the images had been uploaded to his Instagram account in support of Earth Day to raise awareness, rather than as evidence of the complainant’s talent as a photographer, and the caption made clear that the animals were being relocated as part of conservation efforts.”
The Mail stood by its article as accurate and fair because Instagram followers wouldn’t have known the “whole story” about the animals’ condition.
Because the images didn’t indicate the tranquilizing and tethering, the photos could have been uploaded in full to show that, and the photo captions didn’t state that, IPSO found it wasn’t “significantly misleading” for the Mail to report that the photos didn’t tell the “full story” or disclose the animals’ condition.