It’s fair to say the wool has been Royally pulled over our eyes by the media bosses’ secret pact to keep stum about Prince Harry’s deployment in Afghanistan. Many journalists, I'm sure, were shocked and felt somewhat cheated this week when the news broke. It felt like all the journalist training drills of news timing, impartiality and objectivity - and above all, public service - had been thrown to the wind. But I’ll deal with the professional betrayal later, let’s look at the facts.Harry returned home today after serving in the dangerous Helmand province in southern Afghanistan for 10 weeks coordinating air strikes as a forward air controller. Soldiers on the other end of the radio receiver had no idea they were talking to the 23-year-old prince. Unlike the troops on the ground who must have been all too aware of the ‘bullet magnet’ in their midst. Harry, however, who threatened to resign from the army last year when it was ruled too risky for him to go to Iraq, was delighted at his opportunity to serve on the front line. In an interview while still in Afghanistan he said; “It's very nice to be a sort of normal person for once, I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get." Come on Harry, if it’s normality you were after, couldn’t you have tried a gap year in Australia like most ‘normal’ kids?
We shouldn’t be surprised by Harry’s desire to be a soldier; he is only the latest in a long line of Royals to have dabbled in military adventures. This stint of active service – however short-lived – will help Harry’s military career. Sir Richard Dannatt, Head of the British army, has praised his “highly responsible attitude”. What some commentators have branded a PR stunt will no doubt prove invaluable to Prince Harry’s progression through the ranks, we are sure to see him in the next series of Soldier Idol.
The prince, who is third in line to the throne, was certainly not shy of media attention prior to his deployment. The Paparazzi has chronicled his coming of age in their photos of drunken nightclub jaunts, street brawls and Nazi flirtations all of which will now be forgiven as Harry emerges as a brave soldier in the war against the Taliban.
To put the young prince’s shortcomings to one side, the current beef is with the media’s decision to keep Harry’s whereabouts from the public. Surely such deceit will tarnish the reputation of journalism as an honest profession that strives for public awareness of global happenings. When we can’t trust the democratic press to keep us informed on matters of such national interest, are we not one step closer to the media censorship experienced in China and South Korea?
Of course I can see the flip-side. The Afghanistan publicity stunt has been a hugely successful news strategy, generating more column inches and raising more eyebrows now than if the story had been made public from the start.
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