Lech Holidays and Photo Sessions: 2014-2020


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A wonderful family. The photo of the Princess Beatrix, I almost wrote queen and Mabel and the girls is great. She filled in the spot for Friso, which gave the whole photo a balanced look.
 
Lech Holidays and Photo Session: February 23, 2015

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The annual winter photo session in Lech will be held on February 23rd.

King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima, Princess Catharina-Amalia, Princess Alexia and Princess Ariane will be present.


** koninklijkhuis.nl: Fotosessie in Lech ** translation **​
 
Hans Jacobs of royalblog.nl records an APA interview with Lech's mayor Ludwig Muxel. The mayor says that Lech is happy that the Dutch RF also under the new king, remains faithful to Lech.

Part of the RF is already in Lech but the king, queen and A3 will only arrive this weekend as next week is a school holiday in The Netherlands. Constantijn & family is already there but need to leave this weekend as the schools in Belgium will start again as the holidays are a week earlier. That is also the reason why Constantijn & family will not participate in Minday's photo shoot.

Mayor Muxel says that the RF are among the most loyal visitors for 55 years already. Sometimes they also come for a few days in summer.

Article in Dutch: ROYALBLOG.NL: Lech kijkt uit naar komst koningspaar
 
Thank you Marengo. I had wondered why Constantijn and family were not listed on the announcement.
 
It's a pity that the whole family or a few more members will be missing from the photo session. Anyways, we always get good pictures, can't wait for it.
 
Wasn't the media code installed to protect the children from media intrusion?

IMO this is taking it a gigantic step too far. How has Princess Beatrix's "personal living sphere" been harmed - there are already hundreds of photographs of her skiing out there, and it's not like she was doing something illegal or shocking/controversial.
 
JessRulz said:
Wasn't the media code installed to protect the children from media intrusion?

IMO this is taking it a gigantic step too far. How has Princess Beatrix's "personal living sphere" been harmed - there are already hundreds of photographs of her skiing out there, and it's not like she was doing something illegal or shocking/controversial.
Click to expand...

its a Dutch thing: afspraak is afspraak-there is a gentleman's agreement(afspraak) to NOT photograph the royal family outside the permitted photo session. You break the rule, you are a fool.:lol::eek:
 
JessRulz said:
Wasn't the media code installed to protect the children from media intrusion?

IMO this is taking it a gigantic step too far. How has Princess Beatrix's "personal living sphere" been harmed - there are already hundreds of photographs of her skiing out there, and it's not like she was doing something illegal or shocking/controversial.
Click to expand...

No, it's for all the royal family, not just the children
English - Het Koninklijk Huis

So indeed the pic of P.Beatrix skiing is not allowed and a pic like one recently of P.William with wife and son boarding a plane would not be allowed either..

Imo this will eventually lead to the RF being less well-known with the dutch people and potentially fuel a discussion on why a RF is needed at all (it's my experience that there are people who still can't tell the 3A princesses apart)
 
Imagine that the NOS, AD, Trouw, Linda, Weekend, RTL, Story, Het Parool, Privé, NRC, Vorsten Royale, ANP, De Volkskrant, Boulevard, Hart van Nederland, 2 Vandaag, Blauw Bloed, De Wereld Draait Door, BNN and name them all are fully free to click and film royals and other famous people while they are just shopping, going to the dentist, are playing field hockey, are visiting a friend, walk on a beach, are sailing or being in the snow? Just because they are famous they have to endure all these prying cameras anytime and anywhere, no matter the futility?

The Princess of Hannover has created basic rules set by EU Courts and all memberstates have to implement these in the national jurisprudences. For so far all lawsuits the Dutch royal family has started were won, all of them pretty simple with a reference to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as Princess Caroline did: "Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, for his home and for his correspondence."

European Treaties are higher than national Constitutions. But even without this European Treaty, the Constitution of the kingdom of the Netherlands says in article 10: "Everyone shall have the right to respect for his privacy, without prejudice to restrictions laid down by or pursuant to Act of Parliament" and article 11: "Everyone shall have the right to inviolability of his person, without prejudice to restrictions laid down by or pursuant to Act of Parliament".

To meet the "needs" of the media, the RVD has set up a "Media Code" essentially saying: "Okay, the members of the Royal House will give access to the private domain so now and then. In turn the media promise to cooperate and respect the right on a private lifesphere of the members of the Royal House."

This is clever because -when neccessary- the lawyers from the Royal House will point that the Royal House is, despite their basic right on a private lifesphere, not at all unwilling to give access but request something in return. The first judge whom rules that clicking Princess Beatrix in her free time and posting it on the frontpage of De Telegraaf is NOT an infringement on her private lifesphere according the European Treaty and the Constituition still has to be born... It will only get tougher because the lawmaker will also protect the royals, the celebrities, the famous against the ever and omnipresent smartphones, cctv cams and even drones flying above their properties...

:flowers:
 
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I doubt very much that this media code is going to be kept indefinately. For now it is fine because the princesses do not do many things that are newsworthy. But the moment they start dating in a decade or so, I am quite sure that all newspapers and magazines will break the code as they will make more money from such pictures than from official ones.

When it was instated I believe it was said that the code was to protect the privacy of the children of WA and Maxima. Only later the code was streched to more members of the RF. It led to some problems in the past, for example the RVD upset at pictures shown of Maxima in Buenos Aires with glasses in 2008, while she was there for a UN function and even smiled for the photographers. At the time very few understood why the pictures were forbidden.

Since the press has the task to publish things that are newsworthy they should never have accepted this code in the first place. Though I am glad that they do not stalk the princesses, you do not need a code for that. It doesn't happen in Spain, Belgium, Norway etc. either. I really can't see why this picture of Beatrix can't be shown. If they want complete privacy perhaps it would be more handy not to go to a jetset winter resort with many paparazzi around. Still, it seems that the press behaves as meek sheep in regards to this matter. Officially they are allowed to published photographs if they are 'news worthy' , the problem is however that it is the RVD who decides what is newsworthy and not the rpess as it should be in a free country.

Many people couldn't tell Friso and Constantijn apart either btw, Maurits was the best known prince of the group.

=

The Telegraaf newspaper in the mean time was in touch with the RVD and removed the picture from their website. Apparently in 2010 the Austrian news channel ORF was also asked to remove photos from Beatrix on skis.

http://nos.nl/artikel/2020618-telegraaf-niet-welkom-op-fotosessie-oranjes.html
 
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Lee-Z said:
[...]

Imo this will eventually lead to the RF being less well-known with the dutch people and potentially fuel a discussion on why a RF is needed at all (it's my experience that there are people who still can't tell the 3A princesses apart)
Click to expand...

Is that something new?

I have never ever been able to tell Princess Margriet's sons apart. I still do not know who is Prince Floris and who is Prince Pieter-Christiaan let alone their wives. I am also not able to identify the two youngest daughters of the King. I would not know who is Ariane and who is Alexia. Only chubby-cheeked Amalia is known to all and everyone, that is what counts.

:flowers:
 
Lee-Z said:
Imo this will eventually lead to the RF being less well-known with the dutch people and potentially fuel a discussion on why a RF is needed at all (it's my experience that there are people who still can't tell the 3A princesses apart)
Click to expand...
:previous:
To be fair, I can't tell the 3A princesses apart and I've been watiching them grow since they were littel and probably have seen their pictures more than the average Dutch citizen. They are all blond with similar colouring and similar haircut , names with all As, and the fact that until recently they were almost always dressed alike doesn't help either.:whistling:
 
Indeed. In every Dutch TV Quiz when candidates are asked like "name the sons of Princess Margriet" they are already hopeless in problems. But that is nothing new. When people are asked to sing the national anthem, they already stutter after the first line...
 
People do however know Mabel, Laurentien and Marilene. I suppose it is easier to distinguish the women.
 
Marengo said:
People do however know Mabel, Laurentien and Marilene. I suppose it is easier to distinguish the women.
Click to expand...

Women have more choice in clothing than the men (who all wear suits), but these three are probably as far apart on the look-a-like spectrum as you can be :lol:

Anyway, i expect the mediacode will stay the way it is until the media will make a statement and boycot the official photo-opps but i don't see that happening anytime soon ;)
 
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Princess Laurentien (daughter of a Government Minister), Princess Mabel (daughter of a banker) and Princess Marilène (daughter of a Government Minister) all have a very peculiar posh accent and pronouncation. Not that there is anything wrong with that: I like it when people make efforts to speak correct and faultless Dutch but it is indeed not the standard-spoken Dutch. Maybe that helps the public to identify these three ladies.

Of course Marilène was also the first one to marry one of Queen Juliana's grandchildren. She was the first and therefore best-known addition to the royal family.
 
Marengo said:
The largest newspaper of the country published a nice picture of Princess Beatrix on skis on the cover this weekend.

http://images0.tcdn.nl/feed/article23713380.ece/BINARY/u/04pMvKLBP5sF_12.jpg

However, the RVD decided that this was a breach of the media code and has banned the newspaper from the photo session on Monday. According to the RVD the 'personal living sphere of the princess has been harmed'.

RVD weert Telegraaf bij fotosessie Oranjes na foto Beatrix - nrc.nl
Click to expand...


Wow what a gorgeous pics , they looks Awesome
 
Marengo said:
When it was instated I believe it was said that the code was to protect the privacy of the children of WA and Maxima. Only later the code was streched to more members of the RF. It led to some problems in the past, for example the RVD upset at pictures shown of Maxima in Buenos Aires with glasses in 2008, while she was there for a UN function and even smiled for the photographers. At the time very few understood why the pictures were forbidden.
Click to expand...

Right, that's how I thought the code had evolved, but I didn't realise that it had evolved to this controlling extent. Like Marengo said, codes aren't needed in other monarchies with young children, and those children don't get stalked by the press.

I agree with you - and the others who believe the media code either won't last or will have a long-term negative effect - that the press are likely to stop agreeing to the media code when the three girls reach their teens. Photos of them coming out of clubs/etc will be worth more than arranged photo session shots that another ten photographers also have.
 
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JessRulz said:
[...] Like Marengo said, codes aren't needed in other monarchies with young children, and those children don't get stalked by the press. [...]
Click to expand...

Oh yes, they are. In Sweden, in the Netherlands, in the United Kingdom, in Spain, etc. there have been complaints, press regulation commissions, special codes, agreements, lawsuits sometimes even. In Spanish and Italian media you always see chlldren blurred. In this day with ever onmipresent smartphones, cctv cams and even drones the need for protection of the private lifesphere is bigger than ever.

The problem is that it always look futile: "Aaaah.... the old Queen on ski's....". But many futilities together become a major infringement. Give the media one finger, they take the whole hand. The present Vice-President of the Council of State in the Netherlands once said: a simple waterdrop, dripping and dripping on the hardest granite stone, can erode it.

The media code is the "translation" by the RVD of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and of Article 10 of the Netherlands Constitution which guarantees respect for the private lifesphere. Anyone whom disagrees, is free to go to the Court and fight it. For so far the judges have backed the royals, seeing the media code as a reasonable working alternative: "We allow you to intrude our private lifesphere on regular moments in the year, in exchange we request you to respect our privacy".

Any medium who wants to fight this, needs to prove before the Court of Justice that making a picture of Princess Beatrix going downhill on ski's is NOT at all an infringement of her right on a private lifesphere and must justify it by the fact that the Princess going downhill on a ski-slope is SO newsworthy for the general public that it justifies chasing, spying and clicking her, with that breaking Article 8 of the ECHR and Article 10 of the Constitution.

:flowers:

In the meantime De Telegraaf has made a comment stating “De onschuldige publicatie mag en kan niet anders worden gezien als een warm eerbetoon aan de voormalige vorstin. Zij is, net als haar moeder, een voorbeeld voor haar generatie.” ("The innocent publication can and may not be seen in any other light than a warm honour to the former Queen. She is, like her mother, an example for her generation").

De Telegraaf noted that they did never sign the media code but "of course have respect for the private lifesphere of the royal family" (they did not explain how then these pictures on the frontpage are no infringement on the Princess' privacy).

De Telegraaf said it was all innocent and the edition with the "innocent" pictures was met with "warm approval" amongst the readers (they did not explain how they found that out).

De Telegraaf concluded: "Everyone understands that this is a question of decency. The King and Queen have right on their security and privacy, with note that the last is limited by the strong public character of their high office" (they did not explain what this has to do with the lack of "decency" towards Princess Beatrix).

By the way, De Telegraaf bought pictures from the press agencies and announced "Three pages with wonderful Orange news tomorrow! No one needs to miss anything around our royal family!" (Ignoring that these pictures are no infringement on the privacy of the royal family as these were made and publicized with mutual agreement).
 
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Lucky , Lech is not Verbier , where our photo Session was cancelled.
Verbier is a new Dubai , soda 10 euros, raclette 50 euros , a bottle champagne between 3.000 and 12.000 euros ... Seen on VTM yesterday !
 
The telegraaf has pictures and a video on their website, so they were able to get around the media code. Since they didn't mention the whole incident on their website, I assume that they were not happy with it themselves.

Koninklijk gezin straalt in sneeuw|Binnenland| Telegraaf.nl

Apparently the king had to encourage his daughters a bit. 'Yes, you like this' he said to Alexia, after which she smiled for the camera's. It must be rarther tedious for them.

Princess Mabel and her daughters were also in Lech last week but left for London this weekend as school started again today.

=
A video from RTL:

RTL XL | mis geen moment

=
And another video by royalblog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Cj-u29Z1Q

According to the blog it is the Austrian Alpiner Polizei who is partly responsible for the safety of the RF while they are skiing, they train the Dutch 10-12 security staff each year. They emntion int he Salzburger Nachrichten that the king is an excellent skier.
 
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Apparently the Telegraaf tried to defend itelf by claiming that the picture was meant as a warm tribute to princess Beatrix. They call it an innocent publication and say that it needs to be placed in the context of siumular pictures of Queen Juliana who was also active and sportive until an advanced age.

„Foto prinses Beatrix is warm eerbetoon” - Koninklijk huis - Reformatorisch Dagblad

The newspapers also had a picture ont he cover of the paper edition on tuesday, so they obviously found a way around the media code.

==
In the mean time various photographers/journalists are wondering if the photo session can be changed as it is becoming somewhat boring now the princesses are getting older . There isn't much spontaneity, the pictures are pretty standard and all resemble pictures of previous recent photo sessions. Also some wonder if they can reintroduce the small talk with the press. This was cancelled byWA when he became king.
 
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Marengo said:
Apparently the Telegraaf tried to defend itelf by claiming that the picture was meant as a warm tribute to princess Beatrix. They call it an innocent publication and say that it needs to be placed in the context of siumular pictures of Queen Juliana who was also active and sportive until an advanced age.

„Foto prinses Beatrix is warm eerbetoon” - Koninklijk huis - Reformatorisch Dagblad

The newspapers also had a picture ont he cover of the paper edition on tuesday, so they obviously found a way around the media code.

==
In the mean time various photographers/journalists are wondering if the photo session can be changed as it is becoming somewhat boring now the princesses are getting older . There isn't much spontaneity, the pictures are pretty standard and all resemble pictures of previous recent photo sessions. Also some wonder if they can reintroduce the small talk with the press. This was cancelled byWA when he became king.
Click to expand...

I am not surprised, that he cancelled this. I have the feeling, he is really stressed by all photosessions, as if he would think during these sessions about what will be in the yellowpress tomorrow... I think he is the person in the family, who protect very hard their private (and also the official) life. I think Maxima would take it not so serious...
 
Thank you to those who shared the photos, videos and articles of the photo session. :flowers:

The AAA's are very cute, and it's nice to see Princess Beatrix present as well. Like Princess Alexia, I noticed that Princess Amalia also seems to have a retainer now.
 
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