British TV channels are in a battle with the Monarchy and the Royal family, who controls the historical record of Queen Elizabeth II’s remembrances after Buckingham Palace insisted broadcasters could only retain an hour of footage for future use.
The Monarchy gave several famous channels time until Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral to compile clips and create a compilation they would like to keep from ceremonial events across the 10 days of mourning for the Queen. The royal household will then consider whether to veto any proposed inclusions.
Once the procedure is complete, most other footage from ceremonial events will be taken out of circulation. Any news platforms expecting to use unapproved footage would have to apply to the royal family on a case-by-case basis, even for material already broadcast to tens of millions of people.
One of the journalists with this knowledge said that Monarchy is being senseless about this. We’re furious that they’re trying to restrict how people can relive sombre but critical historical events.”
These negotiations have further highlighted that the Royal family has given shape to the news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death. Stewart Purvis, The former editor of ITN, has said the policy is equivalent to self-censorship.
Buckingham palace has not responded to a request for comment. The reports revealed that the Royal family restricted all the channels from using Queen’s memorial footage.
There was reluctant acceptance of this approach among British broadcasters, notably when the palace suggested footage intruded on royals’ personal grief. But now, the battle has shifted towards who controls the historical narrative of the Queen’s death.
According to the sources at the broadcasters, the palace has said they can retain the rights to show up to 12 minutes of footage from the hour-long Westminster Abbey funeral service, 12 minutes from the Windsor castle committal service and only a few minutes from each of the various vigils that took place as the Queen’s coffin lay in Westminster Hall in London and St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.
