The Irish Daily Star newspaper is under threat of imminent closure as a major row escalates between shareholders over topless photos of Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge.
The paper is a joint venture between Ireland’s Independent News and Media and Britain’s Northern & Shell publishing giant.
The decision to print topless photos of Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William, in Saturday’s edition of the tabloid has now caused massive consequences.
Both managing director Ger Colleran editor Michael O’Kane have defended the decision to print the photos which first appeared in a French magazine.
But a livid Northern & Shell chairman Richard Desmond has said he will close the joint venture with immediate effect. Independent News and Media, the other owner, has condemned the decision to publish the photos.
Desmond will address an emergency board meeting on Tuesday with staff at the paper’s Dublin offices to be addressed by senior management on Sunday.
An outraged Dennis told reporters: “I am very angry at the decision to publish the photographs and am taking immediate steps to close the joint venture.
“The decision to publish these pictures has no justification whatever and Northern & Shell condemns it in the strongest possible terms.”
Desmond is keen to distance his British newspapers, including the Daily Star and the Daily Express, from the fall-out as the British Royal family threaten to sue the Irish Star.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have already said they will sue the French managzine which first published the photos, taken from a tree almost a mile away from their holiday villa.
An Italian magazine has said it will publish another 20 photos of the princess on Monday.
Irish Daily Star Editor Michael O’Kane defended his decision to print.
O’Kane told the BBC: “I am taken aback by the reaction. The duchess would be no different to any other celeb pics we would get in, for example Rihanna or Lady Gaga.
“She’s not the future queen of Ireland so really the only place this is causing fury seems to be in the UK.
“Of course people are going to be interested in this. She’s married into the Royal Family, she’s one of the most photographed people in the world, and she decides to partially disrobe on a balcony where it can be seen from a public road and she’s stunned now, or the palace are annoyed, that people are interested in this.”
Irish Daily Star managing director Ger Colleran added: “What we do in the Irish Daily Star is to produce an Irish newspaper for an Irish audience. The photographs of images taken from the magazine were not printed in our Belfast edition and there were two reasons for that - sensitivity to our British partners, Express Newspapers, and a slightly different legal regime.
“The issue here is that one is somewhat surprised about the furore that’s been created, particularly in a British media that gave freedom of speech to the world and is rightly called the Mother of Parliaments, underwritten by freedom of expression and a free press.” said Mr Colleran.
The Independent Group in Dublin has distanced itself from management at the Star and their decision to publish the photos.
INM chief executive Joe Webb said: “This was a poor decision. These pictures should not have been published. I understand the anger that many Irish citizens feel at the offence caused to the British Royal family, especially in the light of the visit of Queen Elizabeth last year.
“That visit was an important culmination of the work of the Peace Process. Since then Ireland has regarded the Queen and her family in the warmest light. Kate Middleton is a member of her family and on behalf of INM, I wish to offer her my deepest apologies.
“We have noted Richard Desmond’s statement and we will be launching an internal inquiry to ensure there will never be a repeat of this breach of decency. However, we will be doing everything in our power to safeguard the 70 jobs at the Irish Daily Star.”
Northern & Shell are consulting their lawyers ‘as a matter of urgency’ over what they believe to be a serious breach of their contract with INM.
Gareth Morgan, the editor of the Daily Star Sunday in Britain, also slammed his Irish colleagues.
Morgan said: “We are absolutely horrified here in the office. I am not just talking on behalf of the Daily Star Sunday but the four other responsible titles in Northern & Shell.
“This has no merit as an editorial decision. This has no merit morally. Frankly, it’s a morally horrible decision.
A Royal spokeswoman condemned the publication by the Irish Daily Star’s.
She said: “There can be no motivation for this action other than greed.
“We will not be commenting on potential legal action ... save to say that all proportionate responses will be kept under review. Any such publication would serve no purpose other than to cause further, entirely unjustifiable upset to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.”
Politicians on both sides of the Irish Sea have also condemned the Irish Daily Star.
Fine Gael party chairman Charlie Flanagan tweeted: “Irish Daily Star disgraces itself yet again by now publishing Kate photos. Neither shame nor standards.”
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.billie061 | Sep 18, 2012, 11:41 AM EDT
Sop for the sake of this pic, 120 jobs are now at risk, as if we don't have enough unemployed people in this country. Well done O'Kane hope it was worth it.
bunkerhill | Sep 17, 2012, 10:14 AM EDT
I find this much ado about nothing. Or very little at any rate. Now someone like Dolly Parton, the "Queen" of country music would be interesting, but Dolly is too much of a lady to be parading around topless on a balcony, What great publicity to set off their luxurious travels around the world Are the Las Vegas papers being sued for revealing Harry's nudies along with his expensive frolicking. What grabs me is that the same day I saw this nonsense on the US news, I saw a feature that there are over a million English without homes due to a shortage of govt funds, while these royals were staying at a 642 chateau in France owned by the queen's nephew. After all the past English royals did to France over the centuries, I am surprised the French even let them in. Fortunately France was a large country and was able to get rid of them. What is wrong with this picture of asking English to rent out rooms to their needy fellow counrymen, given the cost of the royal wedding? I am sure Kate was not forced out on the balcony by gun point and it is insulting to our American servicemen to see Harry cavorting in an $8,000 dollar per night room throwing a huge party. What was he doing training here in the first place? There are bases in England. I can't tell you how sick most Americans are of this "royal" bunch, their crooked banks, LIBOR, and their Hollywood promoters.
pilib04 | Sep 17, 2012, 09:14 AM EDT
"The only free press belongs to those own one!" Mark Twain.
pilib04 | Sep 17, 2012, 08:47 AM EDT
O'Kane's comment that "she is not the future Queen of Ireland really hit the mark. The Brits would never dare censor an American tabloid or continental Europe tabloid, but have no problem shutting down an Irish paper. They still consider themselves the masters of Ireland. By the by, what is all this "Royal Family" nonsense. This inbred dystfunctional German crowd (Saxe-Gotha and Coburg) is not Royal in Ireland. Check out all of the anti-Irish bigotry on this page.
Arthur Cola | Sep 17, 2012, 08:30 AM EDT
Well it appears that some shareholders have a bit of sense. It's common practice, from my experience in Europe, for women to sun bath topless. The Duchess, given her position, may have given that practice a second thought but she was in the privacy of a vaction home and not in public and that makes all the difference. If Ireland Nborth is correct, then the newspaper isn't worth saving anyway. Wish the Italian and French magazines would have had better sense as well.
IrelandNorth | Sep 17, 2012, 05:46 AM EDT
Incidentally, Caít is more generically an English dutchess (ie female Netherlander!) rather than a British one, Cambridgeshire being an English home county rather than a Welsh or Scottish region. On a personal level I feel for her, but on a impersonal one I don't. Hopefully, this will be her first (and last) 15 seconds of infamy. Incidentally, The Star is a largely British tabloid of questionable journalistic merit. It caters for a readership of generally low intelligent quotient who exhibit all the symptoms of an unsatisfactorily weaned maternal readership. Hence the preoccupation with mammaries, aristocratic or proletarian, between which there is little difference. Learn your lesson Caít, and keep your peas in your pods.
Ron | Sep 17, 2012, 01:48 AM EDT
Topless???? She's TITLESS!!!! Not even a good handful between both of them. What a fuss about NOTHING!!!
TayandCake | Sep 16, 2012, 11:55 PM EDT
its all just money making
borefield | Sep 16, 2012, 08:45 PM EDT
Thank you TomSwinford for a common sense and informative answer to those that are ignorant of the important part the Royal Family is to the English people. One doesn't have to like them, although what's not to like! You are also right when you state " you can't legislate common deceny" I sincerely hope the media will back off and leave the young couple to live their lives in peace.
seanomelb | Sep 16, 2012, 07:02 PM EDT
I find the outrage over a few grainy photos amusing and the self flagellation by the British a little over the top. AS for Dianna she used the press and abused the press when it suited her. I find the whole episode ridiculous and panders only to the dimwitted in our society.
seanomelb | Sep 16, 2012, 06:48 PM EDT
kawholland, I don't suffer fools gladly but I will indulge you for a moment: The Royal Family of Britain, aka, The House of Windsor, is an enormous economic enterprise and a huge source of revenue for the British Exchequer. William and Kate Windsor travel the world as goodwill ambassadors, part of their entourage being high level officials of the Dept of Trade and Industry - as well as many British businessmen and women - their purpose being to secure new business and enhance trade. At home the Royal Family is at its height of popularity, generating huge revenues, much of it from tourists, many of them American. In short, lad, The House of Windsor,PLC pays its way - and then some.
seamusdenais | Sep 16, 2012, 06:46 PM EDT
I thought the papparazzi would be a thing of the past after 1997 but I was wrong. The Royal Family have demonstrated how disgusting, invasive and immoral they are. Imagine how you would feel if I came into your home, took pictures of you naked having sex with your wife and then put them in every paper in the world for money. It's as degrading as that.
AmericanReader | Sep 16, 2012, 06:00 PM EDT
I couldn't agree more with borefield! This rag and all of them like it should be shut down. How many high profile people have die because these rags offer big bucks to photographers to chase after them, at the risk of their lives? These people and their organizations have no conscious or integrity. We have put up with them for too many years. Shut them down.
freebie28 | Sep 16, 2012, 05:54 PM EDT
O’Kane told the BBC: “I am taken aback by the reaction. The duchess would be no different to any other celeb pics we would get in, for example Rihanna or Lady Gaga." Rihanna or Lady Gaga? Please; if all the Kate-haters here want to make her out to be nothing more than kitty litter, consider Rihanna or Lady Gaga what the kitty litter is there to hide!
freebie28 | Sep 16, 2012, 05:39 PM EDT
canadianirish and Rebelforce, in my earlier comment I was going to finish with your point that Kate should have known the papparazzi would be waiting to pounce. Perhaps, but consider this, her life is totally managed her every waking moiment, lived under a strict code of conduct and protocol. Perhaps she thought these few precious days in the South of France were her own, to rebel a little, be herself, give the world her middle finger, so to speak, for a few days.... Who could blame her? Did she deserve her privacy at this time? In my opinion, absolutely, she did.
aloistmartin | Sep 16, 2012, 05:24 PM EDT
Poor Little miss Flemm Flash ! First Her Revolution, now her Freedom of Press ! Where will the Double Devon Cream Stop !
Ned Daly | Sep 16, 2012, 05:23 PM EDT
according to the GOB Shiites in Ireland your private garden is their public property. No wonder they are turning into the bailout beggars of Europe
MegK311 | Sep 16, 2012, 04:51 PM EDT
Is the press going to follow Kate around and harass her just as the did with Princess Diana? I could imagine that this is a touchy subject for Prince William. Everybody should allow them some privacy.
Deidra47 | Sep 16, 2012, 04:50 PM EDT
Keep your clothes on and you won't have to worry about these kind of pictures.
dickmac | Sep 16, 2012, 04:48 PM EDT
If she was dumb enough to be outside where this could happen then FREEDOM OF THE PRESS takes it from there
handsome68 | Sep 16, 2012, 04:14 PM EDT
Where would the world be without mammary glands?
Ned Daly | Sep 16, 2012, 04:11 PM EDT
Cant wait for the backlash from the silent majority. The first casualties will be innocent workers at the paper who will be on the dole next week. The second casualties will be the Irish Taxpayers when they feel the full wrath of a British boycott covering everything from business and entertainment to tourism. The biggest casualty of all however will be the Irish image which has now exchanged its 40 shades of Green the gutter culture of FIfty Shades of Gray
cillowen | Sep 16, 2012, 04:00 PM EDT
a nipple ripple
oaklongan | Sep 16, 2012, 03:40 PM EDT
It's an invasion of privacy, even though the 'royal'couple are high-profile celebrities. Not interested in any of them. Think it was reported & photos were published in scandal sheets in the 60's that Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Onassis)was photographed on a Onassis yacht topless. All that money and pity the 'inconvenience' it causes...Irony, indeed. All that's needed are the end credits of Rocky & Buffwinkle with the passing parade of all 'royals' through time then with Roman soldiers, followed by the little man with the brush-mustache sweeping up after This and sundry other pageants... : )
warlocks | Sep 16, 2012, 03:29 PM EDT
I For one think it was in bad taste to publish those topless pictures . why do we have to stoop that low and shame a beautiful person like kate. have we all been reduced to animals. just think you would feel if she were your, Mother , Wife or Daughter or Granddaughter?
Mousemess | Sep 16, 2012, 03:07 PM EDT
Michael O'Kane = Micheal O' Cathain
Mousemess | Sep 16, 2012, 03:03 PM EDT
Nil fonn ar bith agam Kate Middleton a fheiceail gan eadai ar bith uirthi. B'fheidir go bhfuil Kate gan chiall (cuireann an focal "gan" seimhiu ar na litreacha seo "b,c, g, m, p") ar bith in a cloigeann. Nochta, is rudai eile. Is mithid di fas anios agus a bheith ina duine fasta. Mo naire uirthi agus ar an nuachtan seo freisin.
Taiwanlight | Sep 16, 2012, 12:34 PM EDT
A good reminder of what can happen when we depend on our English 'friends' although I'm not a reader of said rag. Lastly, she's so damned skinny, I have to ask "What Boobs does she really have anyway and why would anyone care to see them?" Seconded. Quite the scrawny English rose. Nothing to get excited about, truth be told.
borefield | Sep 16, 2012, 12:34 PM EDT
The Gutter Press and the ill gotten photos should be shut down. The photographer and Mr. O'Kane should be on the dole line next week. They will not be satisfied until they run this lovely young woman into the side of a wall like Diana. Don't these people have any conscious or integrity? I guess not, therefore they are gutter snipes. Shut the rag paper down.
canadianirish | Sep 16, 2012, 12:30 PM EDT
Note to Richard Desmond: Get over yourself. As for the Duchess of Cambridge let's hope she's learned a lesson. I am in complete agreement with 'Rebelforce'. If Kate's willing to flaunt it then she should expect that the papparazzi will photograph it. Sorry, but she walked right into this one.
kawholland | Sep 16, 2012, 12:24 PM EDT
First of all..I often wonder what the royal family does to actually earn money. Not being from England I truly dont care...but I could see where it would annoy me if I worked hard so that they could travel around doing basically nothing contributory to the world in general..and I was helping to pay for it. I also agree that if you are a celebrity nowadays..whether or not it is right...you can expect that someone is following you with a camera...if you appear in areas where you can be photographed you can expect that someone is going to take a picture....the old "doctor it hurts if I do this" syndrome. It is always amazes me that the celebrities in any part of the world...who dont choose to be in the limelight...rarely do!!!! Does that tell you a little something..and the ones that do....are mostly those that have little to offer but tabloid type info, to begin with,
Dublinborn | Sep 16, 2012, 12:19 PM EDT
what most of the bleeden eejets on this forum dont realize is the fall out for the Irish taxpayer. You have more Irish media workers going on the dole next week while Paddy O' Looney Mc Mansion politicians are going cap in hand begging the Brits and Germans for a bail out. The hypocrisy is that if the photos were of a Saudi Royal princess or the usual friends of Allah some Irish Ambassador would be coming home in a coffin after being sodomized with his balls in a sling from the PC Animals in the middle East.
seanaci | Sep 16, 2012, 12:05 PM EDT
@jamthecat. " "Just because technology allows you to snap photos from thousands of feet away does not give you the right to invade the privacy of people relaxing in a secluded villa, well out of the public eye." Unless, of course, the pnhotos are taken by the minnions of our dear leaders. I'll in Menwith Hill they have special programs to filter out titilating (pun intended) photos and conversations to help pass the time while they complete their Arab language classes and record the tweetings of teenagers.
jimmybb | Sep 16, 2012, 11:43 AM EDT
am with steve virginia more perky boobs less beheadings lol brillaint
calceltic | Sep 16, 2012, 11:42 AM EDT
Invasion of privacy ? Absolutely, if you have to use a telephoto lens to take the picture of some one in a private residence, then you have no business taking the photo. Is she being a whiner and vindictive? Yes she is. Now people will lose their jobs because she's pretending to care about her privacy? Then she shoudn't have married a Prince. Lastly, she's so damned skinny, I have to ask "What Boobs does she really have anyway and why would anyone care to see them?"
GraydonWilson | Sep 16, 2012, 11:40 AM EDT
Kate knew fully well that she is being watched and photographed every time she goes outside of her private rooms. She went out on a balcony. She could see town and countryside in the distance and should have known that what she can see can also see her. She hung it out and should accept the consequences. She and the Windsors are simply flexing their over-privileged muscles. It's certainly nothing new to Ireland.
StevieVirginia | Sep 16, 2012, 11:38 AM EDT
I love perky boobs! Less beheadings! More perky boobs!
KatieMurphy | Sep 16, 2012, 11:26 AM EDT
the puritans who usseed to burn people at the stake are having a fit. So what - if you dont like it, dont look, look at your own partners naked FYI - I tried to join a nudist colony here on the USA east coast. Made one mistake - told them I was married. obviouss why said no go. (wife is too darn shy)
Dublinborn | Sep 16, 2012, 11:22 AM EDT
Irish Daily Star Editor and Amadan in Chief Michael O’Kane loses his paper and respect because he did not fully own the megaphone. Priceless
frankieblo | Sep 16, 2012, 11:05 AM EDT
hello, once again the pampered,spoit brats, of the windsors, complain about photos being published, these people dont complain about using my tax i pay ! to jet round the world ,this crowd of leaches are using tax payers money to enjoy themselves when they like! so they are fair game to those who wish to photograph them and why should newspapers be closed to appease that bunch of wasters on society , its time the brit public woke up and shipped this crowd to some isolated island and they can parade in buff unhindered! or better still join a nudist colony! thanks frankieblo
frankieblo | Sep 16, 2012, 11:00 AM EDT
Those papers that print the photos are morally corrupt. . To say they deserve it because they were out on a terrace sunbathing is unreal. The creeps that took the pictures were hiding in the bushes with camera's to catch them in any way they could. I feel so sorry for her and all people that are at the mercy of the gutter press.
markday | Sep 16, 2012, 10:41 AM EDT
Sorry, big time celebs need to know they can't prance around in the buff no matter where they go. The same thing happened to Lady Diane and Jackie Kennedy. Leave the nude sun bathing to the less well known. Paparazzi are paparrazzi. Newspapers are out to sell newspapers, especially the Fleet street crowd--and the royals are conducting this tour to sell the image of the royals. Besides, has the British monarchy apologized for screwing over the Irish for the past 800 years. Notatall!
Rebelforce | Sep 16, 2012, 10:33 AM EDT
Does anyone doubt for a moment that if there were photos available of Mary McAleese, or Caroline Kennedy, or Sinead O'Connor, or Mother Teresa appearing top and bottomless in a hotel window that every single British tabloid would publish those photos on the front page in a heartbeat, decency be damned? This peculiar and almost child-like English idol worship of their "royal family" is getting quite tiresome. Yes, it's true that the English see the royals as the representatives of England to the world, but if you don't want to be seen naked, then don't flaunt your naked body in an open window on a busy street.
jamthecat | Sep 16, 2012, 10:31 AM EDT
Just because technology allows you to snap photos from thousands of feet away does not give you the right to invade the privacy of people relaxing in a secluded villa, well out of the public eye. It's inexcusable. I'm a fanatic about freedom of the press and being allowed to express your opinion, even if I don't agree with it...but I really do think this was just another form of rape.
dermotfastnet | Sep 16, 2012, 10:25 AM EDT
Sack those responsible for publication and not those hard working staff in the back office
indulgence | Sep 16, 2012, 10:11 AM EDT
I am also for the free press but i feel that maybe compromising photos should be taken with telephoto lenses of some of these editors there partners and (adult) children and freely published in various mags just to see how they feel about there exposed flesh being looked at by the masses, maybe they may think twice in the future about doing the same to others.
indulgence | Sep 16, 2012, 09:14 AM EDT
I believe that a free press is essential to a free government - and to the oversight of that government on behalf of the people. Alas, we cannot legislate common decency or good taste. This is shameful and disgusting, done not to inform the body politic but for pure greed.