British Toughen Rules Of Conduct For Newspapers Proposed Guidelines Would Ban Buying Photographs Taken By Paparazzi

Editors of leading British newspapers endorsed tough new guidelines Thursday designed to curb the aggressive tactics of paparazzi and protect public figures from media harassment. The action came in response to angry criticism that the press had hounded Princess Diana to death.

“We’ve listened and we’ve acted,” said Lord Wakeham, the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, who issued the new rules after consulting widely with newspaper editors over the past few weeks.

Among the changes Wakeham recommended in the newspaper industry’s code of conduct is a declaration that British newspapers should cease purchasing paparazzi photographs obtained illegally or unethically.

“Motorbike chases, stalking and hounding are unacceptable, and editors who carry pictures obtained by them will be subjected to the severest censure by the (commission),” Wakeham said in a statement read to reporters here Thursday.

In the wake of Diana’s death almost four weeks ago, many newspapers voluntarily announced they would no longer buy paparazzi-style photographs, and some went further in declaring they would provide only limited coverage of Diana’s two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

But the declarations set off a debate among competing newspapers over whether the papers’ pledges amounted to anything more than a public relations effort that quickly would be abandoned in the heat of competition.

Thursday’s recommendations by the industry organization go beyond what many newspapers originally had committed themselves to and carry the potential for censures and rebukes if they are violated. They must be reduced to the quasi-legal language of the code of conduct, a process that will take several months, before they can go into effect.

But Sir David English, editor in chief of Associated Newspapers and chairman of the code of conduct committee, said, “We have reached a consensus. I don’t think there will be any sticking points.”

Wakeham called his recommendations “a tough package of measures which goes well beyond the rather narrow issue of the paparazzi. In doing so it touches on every aspect of the question of intrusion which recent events have highlighted.”

Wakeham praised the editors for their willingness to respond to the new environment in which they find themselves.

But Charles Moore, editor of the Daily Telegraph, a broad-sheet newspaper, questioned whether tabloid editors are ready to change their behavior. “What’s really hard for the tabloids is to recognize the general right of people to privacy,” he said in an interview. “It’s easy to say we’re going to be nice to Prince William. What is hard is to rethink their whole philosophy of journalism.”