The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have decided to no longer work with Daily Mail, Express, Mirror and The Sun. In a letter sent to the four tabloids, the royal couple indicated that they now refuse to “offer themselves up as currency for an economy of click bait and distortion.”
“With that said, please note that The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not be engaging with your outlet. There will be no collaboration and zero engagement,” they wrote.
The Society of Editors denounced the move and called it a form of “censorship.”
“Although the duke and duchess say they support a free press and all it stands for there is no escaping their actions here amount to censorship,” executive director Ian Murray told The Sunday Times.
“By appearing to dictate which media they will work with and which they will ignore they, no doubt unintentionally, give succour to the rich and powerful everywhere to use their example as an excuse to attack the media when it suits them.”
Dan Wootton, executive editor of The Sun, also reacted to the couple’s move and called it “pathetic.” According to him, Prince Harry is obsessed with his hatred with the press that he has prioritized it over anything else.
Wootton said that the media weren’t interested when they announced the name of their new nonprofit organization Archewell because they were more focused on the brutal force of coronavirus and the struggles of the NHS.
He also added that Prince Harry and Markle refused to work with them because they were the ones who were reporting the truth about their falling-out with the royal family.
“But, for the record, the reason Harry and Meghan have decided to institute some sort of ban on the British tabloids is because they are the very newspapers reporting the truth about their behind-the-scenes fallout with the Royal Family,” Wootton wrote.