No topless pictures of Kate in Finnish gossip magazine

Kate Middleton

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The Finnish celebrity gossip magazine 7 päivää ("7 Days") did not publish topless pictures of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge and the wife of Britain’s Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, in its latest issue.
      The magazine had been expected to include a spread of the paparazzi photos taken while the Duchess was sunbathing in France.
     
The magazine’s editor Eeva-Helena Jokitaipale said on Thursday morning that the pictures were taken illegally, under both Finnish and French law, as they were taken in what is considered a curtilage - a private area. "If the pictures would have been taken in a public space they certainly would have been published", Jokitaipale says. She says that the magazine gave lengthy consideration to the matter. The decision not to publish the pictures was made on Monday.
     
The Danish gossip magazine Se og Hør said that it would publish the photographs on Thursday.
      The magazine’s publisher Aller said that the magazine was dedicating a 16-page supplement to the pictures.
      A press release by Aller claimed that "a Finnish magazine" was also publishing the pictures.
      Aller publishes 7 päivää in Finland, but the pictures were not in Thursday’s issue.
      Aller’s Swedish publication Se och Hör reportedly published the pictures already on Wednesday.
     
According to Risto Uimonen, the chairman of the Council for Mass Media in Finland, the issue of societal relevance would determine whether or not the publication of the photographs would violate journalistic ethics.
      "This is an area where decision-makers need to be extremely careful", said Uimonen, who has been following the international controversy over the issue because he suspected that it might surface in Finland as well.
      "The question is whether or not it has societal relevance for us to see the Duchess topless. It is hard for me to see that there would be any particular reason for this."


Links:
  Council for Mass Media in Finland

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