Campaigners have condemned the palace’s demands for control and censorship of coronation footage, following revelations from John Ryley, ex-head of Sky News.
Campaign group Republic will be writing to all national broadcasters, calling on them to stop colluding with palace censorship.
Ryley has complained about direct and persistent interference in editorial decisions of broadcasters during the coronation and other major royal events, and demands of censorship of countless moments captured on camera.
Republic has called the King’s demands ‘Trumpian’ and unacceptable in a democracy, and called on broadcasters to stop colluding with such demands.
Graham Smith, Republic’s CEO, said today:
“The coronation was a publicly funded state occasion. It is shameful that the palace adopts Trumpian methods to manage their image and control the message at taxpayers’ expense.”
“It is disgraceful but unsurprising the monarchy behaves in this way. But the broadcasters also need to explain themselves. Why do they collude with our head of state and his press office?”
“There needs to be an open, honest review of the relationship between media and monarchy. And we need to see a 180 degree shift so that the BBC and others challenge and hold to account the royals just as they’re expected to with politicians.”
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