The Sun, Rupert Murdoch’s popular British tabloid, announced it would publish nude photographs of Prince Harry in Friday’s paper despite being asked not to by the royal family.

British newspapers had previously refrained from running the grainy snaps showing the third in line to the throne cavorting naked with friends in a Las Vegas hotel suite, but the top-selling tabloid said its readers had a “right to see them”.

“The Sun is publishing the naked Prince Harry party pictures our readers have been prevented from seeing in print,” it said in a statement.

“He often sails close to the wind for a royal — but he’s 27, single and a soldier.

“We like him. We are publishing the photos because we think Sun readers have a right to see them. The reasons for that go beyond this one story,” it added.

Royal officials contacted the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) media watchdog to try and prevent publication, arguing it would breach his privacy, but the pictures have been widely seen on the Internet.

Industry figures put the media’s hitherto reluctance down to the fallout from last year’s phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, which sparked the judge-led Leveson Inquiry into press ethics.

But some newspapers complained that they had been gagged by the royal family.

The Daily Mail said lawyers for Harry’s father Prince Charles had threatened legal action against British papers which published the photographs, even though they were freely available online, making “a mockery of our privacy laws”.

By Sapa-AFP

Photos via Facebook/princeharryfanspage