Our special correspondent in the UK Ji Shuangcheng
The British royal family released the first official photo of Princess Kate since she underwent abdominal surgery on the 10th. Unexpectedly, this photo was questioned by many news organizations because it was suspected of being "excessive p-image". News organizations including Reuters, AP, AFP, Getty Images, and others removed the photo later that day. On the 11th, Kate apologized for this on the social platform x.
The British "Metropolitan Daily" reported on the 11th that on the occasion of British Mother's Day, Kensington Palace released a photo of Kate and her three children together on its social media. The photo was taken by Prince William. "Metropolitan Daily" said that the royal family released Kate's photos to tell the outside world that "Kate is recovering" and to quell some rumors about her physical condition. Along with the photo, there was a message: "Thank you everyone for your kind wishes and continued support over the past two months." "Happy Mother's Day to everyone."
However, the photo editor of Reuters stated that in the photo, Kate's daughter Xia Part of the sleeve of Princess Lott's dress looked unusual, which "suggested the image had been edited." Reuters initially stated that it was unable to determine what tools and methods were used to make such edits, nor was it clear who made the changes and for what reason.
According to the regulations of Reuters and other media, images must not be "excessively edited", and image editing tools such as photoshop can only be used in very limited circumstances. The Reuters Press Handbook writes: "We often use only a fraction of its potential functionality to format, crop, or make limited adjustments to the color of an image." Due to the possibility of over-editing, Kate's The photo was taken down by multiple media outlets.
Kate posted on x on the 11th: "Like many amateur photographers, I occasionally try to edit. I would like to apologize for any confusion caused by the family photos we shared yesterday." Under this post, many Netizens expressed support for Kate.
After undergoing abdominal surgery in January, Kate has not been seen in public for a long time, sparking a lot of speculation. The British royal family is still keeping the health conditions of Kate and King Charles III secret. Earlier, a royal staff member told the British "Sun" that the royal family has learned about the public concern about Kate, but will not change its strategy, and said that it hopes the public will respect Kate's right to privacy.
Some of the recent actions of the royal family surrounding Kate have exposed problems such as poor information communication. Last week, the Ministry of Defense hastily announced that Kate would attend a celebration event in June. However, the news was taken down from the website shortly after it was posted. British media said this may be because the military did not obtain royal approval before releasing the news. ▲
