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updated 8/26/2012 12:18:22 PM ET 2012-08-26T16:18:22

Rupert Murdoch said Britain's Prince Harry should be given a break, days after his Sun tabloid added to the 27-year-old's embarrassment by printing pictures of him cavorting naked in Las Vegas, in defiance of appeals from Royal lawyers.

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"Prince Harry. Give him a break. He may be on the public payroll one way or another, but the public loves him, even to enjoy Las Vegas," the media mogul said on Twitter.

Prince Harry keeps quiet on naked photographs

The Sun, which is part of Murdoch's News Corp empire, broke ranks with the rest of Britain's press by publishing the grainy pictures on Friday.

It justified its move by saying that, with the pictures freely available on the Internet, the issue had become one of "the freedom of the press".

Video: First British tabloid runs nude Prince Harry pics (on this page)


Murdoch defended the decision. "Needed to demonstrate no such thing as free press in UK. Internet makes mockery of these issues. 1st amendment please," he tweeted, referring to the right to freedom of speech set out in the U.S. Constitution.

Jeremy Hunt, Britain's minister for culture, media and sport, told BBC News that he did not think the publication of the photos was in the public interest, but ultimately it was a decision for editors.

"Personally I cannot see what the public interest was in publishing those (pictures)," he said on Sunday.

Video: Lochte: I was with Harry night nude photos were taken (on this page)

"But we have a free press and I don't think it is right for politicians to tell newspaper editors what they can and cannot publish. That must be a matter for the newspaper editors."

The Independent newspaper said on Sunday that Rupert Murdoch ordered the Sun to publish because he wanted to send a warning shot to Lord Justice Leveson, the judge leading an inquiry into media standards in the wake of a phone-hacking scandal at Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid.

News International, News Corp's British newspapers arm, was not immediately available to comment on the Independent report.

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Video: First British tabloid runs nude Prince Harry pics

  1. Closed captioning of: First British tabloid runs nude Prince Harry pics

    >> to the controversial photos of prince harry . the royal family has attempted to keep them out of the british papers. this morning one paper has made the decision to show them. stephanie gosk at buckingham palace with more on this. good morning.

    >> good morning, matt. people in this country are really scratching their head when the british media decided not to run with these photos, especially when anyone with the internet and five seconds on their hands can get ahold of them. it's been three days since prince harry 's wild vacation was exposed. two photos taken in his hotel suite spread as fast as the internet could move them, lightning fast. it took a day for "the sun" to reveal the prince himself. the managing editor, he felt he needed to explain.

    >> this is about freedom of the press. ludicrous situation where a people can be seen by hundreds of millions of people around the world on the internet but can't be seen in the nation's favorite paper.

    >> reporter: the palace went to the british press complaints commission to argue that the photos were a violation of prince harry 's privacy. the british media listened. not a single major news organization has used the photos. in a statement today "the sun" argues the 27-year-old's behavior in las vegas was not that of a man jealously guarding his privacy. neither were his security detail , the two metropolitan police officers on guard who let cameras or cell phones into the suite.

    >> this is a vip room with a potential head of state, and you just don't do that. that should have been checked, bagged, secured outside the room. when those people left, they would have gotten all their belongings back.

    >> reporter: prince harry 's friend arthur landon with prince harry says he believes it may have been one of the guests invited into the room, an $8,000 a night suite like this one at the wynn hotel . l landon who says he was not in the suite that night said, "some people have been hinting that it was one of his friends who took the pictures. but that is absolutely not true. none of his friends would do that. we are very careful. he went on to say whoever did sell the pictures to the press were, in his words, despicable. prince harry will resume his military duties next week. the defense says they won't comment whether or not he will be reprimanded. either way i'm sure the prince will be happy that this vacation is coming to an end. matt.

    >> all right. stephanie gosk in london for us. steph, thanks

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