(London) The British press was rather lenient on Tuesday towards Princess Kate, but the retouched photo for which she took responsibility is a disaster in terms of communication, which casts suspicion on the information disseminated by the future couple royal.
The publication on Sunday of a photo of the Princess of Wales, all smiles and surrounded by her children for Mother’s Day, was to put an end to rumors and speculation about her absence from public life for almost two months after a major operation of the abdomen.
But the discovery of multiple edits on this photo, its withdrawal by five of the biggest press agencies which had published it, and the flat apologies of Kate, who took responsibility by saying “try her hand at publishing”, had the completely opposite effect.
PHOTO FROM THE X-COUNT OF THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES
This Kensington Palace operation is a “PR disaster”, a public relations disaster, summarized the Daily Mail on its front page on Tuesday.
The British press is rather understanding towards Kate and William, the star couple of the monarchy. “Leave him alone”, launched the tabloid in particular The Sundenouncing a “campaign of harassment”.
But confidence in the information distilled by Kensington Palace now seems to have been undermined.
“In the current context, any manipulation of an image, even minor and without intention to mislead, can arouse suspicion,” said Chris Morris, director of the verification site Full Fact.
“Conspiracy theories emerge when there is an information vacuum,” he adds, into which Internet users were quick to rush.
On the social network Voguein order to conceal the impact of his illness – the nature of which we do not know –, or even its absence.
However, the manipulation of royal portraits is not entirely new: in the last century, the official Windsor photographer, Cecil Beaton, used to make adjustments to obtain the perfect shot, recalls royal biographer Hugo Vickers in the Telegraph.
More recently, the 2023 Christmas portrait of the Welsh family, or a photo of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Philip in 2020, displayed certain inconsistencies – a missing finger, an extra leg – without the public wondering. in turmoil.
Doubts and suspicions
Kate has a habit of taking photos of her family, which are then published in the press.
“In an age of fake news […] who can we believe if even the royal family provides doctored photos,” asked journalist Hannah Furness in the Telegraph.
Flora Canavan, a 21-year-old student interviewed in London, said she was “quite shocked”. Conversely, Jen Chambers, lawyer, finds that the case has been “disproportionately exaggerated”.
The sequence will in any case have sowed doubt about the recovery of the princess – especially since Kensington Palace refused to publish the original photo – and even about the solidity of her relationship with William.
According to Peter Hunt, a former royal correspondent for the BBC, “people will now wonder if they are trustworthy the next time they publish information about the health” of the Windsors, at a time when King Charles III is suffering from cancer.
Because even if they aspire to preserve part of their private lives, “trust in public institutions is so low” that members of the royal family must act “transparency”, indicates Hannah Perry, researcher specializing in disinformation within the Demos think tank.
A new snapshot taken by two royal photographers on Monday afternoon showed the princess in a car alongside Prince William. But the fever has not subsided, with Internet users immediately denouncing a manipulated photo.
This sequence also follows a week of confusion, during which Prince William missed an official engagement for mysterious “personal reasons”, and the announcement of Kate’s participation in a military parade in June was removed from the schedule official a few hours after its publication.