News Agency: Like North Korea, Royals No Longer ‘Trusted Source’ After Kate Photo

Agence France-Presse (AFP) says it no longer considers Kensington Palace a “trusted source” after the truly bizarre case of the Mother’s Day photo which Kate Middleton apologized for editing this week.

Phil Chetwynd, AFP’s global news director, told BBC radio Wednesday about how his agency and others tried to get the palace to provide the original image to establish the extent to which the image had been edited. When they received no reply, they issued “kill” notices informing editors not to publish the doctored photo—a move which Chetwynd says has been more typically associated with images from the regimes of Iran and North Korea rather than the British Royal Family.

The image from Kensington Palace sent social media into meltdown when it was published over the weekend. It’s release was reportedly partly intended to firefight the conflagration of conspiracy theories and speculation sweeping across cyberspace about the princess’ health following her surgery in January. Instead, it poured gasoline on the flames.

Read more at The Daily Beast.