英女王致信報社 抗議狗仔隊騷擾

Britain's Queen Elizabeth has written to newspaper and magazine editors over the issue of paparazzi photographers intruding on the royal family's privacy, Buckingham Palace said on Sunday.

"The letter was sent to editors in response to many years of the royal family being hounded by photographers on the Queen's private property," her press office said.

There were no details of the contents of the "private and not for publication" letter, sent by a royal lawyer on the queen's behalf, or when it was sent. But the Sunday Telegraph said the royals were now ready to take legal action if photographers took pictures of them while they were "off duty."

It said they could sue for breach of privacy or take action under protection of harassment laws. "Members of the royal family feel they have a right to privacy when they are going about everyday, private activities," said Paddy Harverson, spokesman for the queen's son Prince Charles.

"They recognize there is a public interest in them and what they do, but they do not think this extends to photographing the private activities of them and their friends." The royal family have long had a strained relationship with the media, especially after the death of Charles's first wife Princess Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi photographers.

In recent years Diana's eldest son Prince William and his girlfriend Kate Middleton have found themselves targeted by press and magazine photographers. Taking legal action would see the royals following in the footsteps of Princess Caroline of Monaco, who won 10,000 euros ($15,000) in damages at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 2005 over German press photos of her and her family.

The court backed Caroline's claim that the pictures had violated her right to respect for her private life. The first test of the new royal stance is likely to come later this month when the queen is joined by other members of the royal family during her regular Christmas visit to her Sandringham estate in Norfolk, in eastern England.

In the past, freelance photographers have spent hours on the estate, whose gardens are open to the public, with long distance lenses hoping to snatch a photo of the royals at play, the Sunday Telegraph noted

英國白金漢宮於上週日稱，日前，女王伊麗莎白二世致信報刊雜誌的編輯，就狗仔隊侵犯王室隱私一事表明自己的態度。

女王新聞辦公室稱：“這封信已寄給編輯們，以迴應狗仔隊們多年來在女王私人領地對王室的騷擾。

這封信件由王室律師以女王的名義發送，信件內容“屬於隱私，不公開發表”，所以有關信件的詳細內容和發送時間都不得而知。但據《星期日電訊報》報道，王室不會再容忍狗仔隊對其私人活動進行偷拍，否則將採取法律行動。

據稱，王室將以侵犯隱私提出訴訟或按照騷擾行爲的有關法令採取必要行動。女王之子查爾斯王儲的發言人帕迪·哈瓦遜說：“王室成員認爲，涉及日常的私人活動，他們享有個人隱私權。”

“王室成員認識到公衆對王室及王室都在幹些什麼很感興趣，但這並不意味着記者們就可以隨意拍攝王室成員及其朋友們的私人生活。”英國王室和媒體之間的關係一直很緊張，尤其是在查爾斯王儲的第一任妻子戴安娜王妃1997年在巴黎遭車禍喪生之後，當時戴安娜王妃遭到狗仔攝影記者的窮追。

近年來，戴安娜王妃的長子威廉王子和女友凱特•米德爾頓發現自己成爲媒體和雜誌攝影記者們追蹤的目標。此前，皇室因不滿媒體追蹤而提起法律訴訟的情況在其它國家也有先例。摩納哥公主卡羅琳曾將德國小報告上斯特拉斯堡的歐洲人權法庭，訴稱其多次刊登自己和家人的照片，並於2005年獲得一萬歐元（合1.5萬美元）的賠償。

卡羅琳公主提出的有關偷拍照片侵犯了其私人生活受尊重權利的上訴獲得了法庭的支持。英國王室在對待狗仔隊問題上的新立場有望在本月晚些時候首次得到驗證。屆時，女王將按慣例，和王室其他成員一起前往位於英格蘭東部諾福克的桑德靈漢姆宮度聖誕。

《星期日電訊報》報道稱，過去，自由攝影記者們會在桑德靈漢姆宮對公衆開放的花園架起長鏡頭，“潛伏”數小時，以期抓拍到王室成員們玩樂的照片

Vocabulary:

paparazzi：a freelance photographer, esp. one who takes candid pictures of celebrities for publication（獵奇名流的攝影記者；狗仔隊）

hound：to pursue or harass without respite（追逐，糾纏）

back：to support, as with authority, influence, help, or money（支持，幫助）