RULE NUMBER one of hiring an intern: do not ask the intern to strip off. Rule number two: do not then take pictures of your naked intern and publish them in your top-selling newspaper.
Sophie Henderson (21), on work experience at the Sun, and staffer Harry Miller (apparently chosen because he had the first name Harry), were pictured naked in the News International tabloid last Thursday as part of its bid to “recreate” Prince Harry’s Vegas hotel room antics.
Later that day, Henderson and Miller issued a joint statement insisting it was all “a bit of harmless fun” and they were “delighted to have played our part in making readers’ laugh”.
National Union of Journalists general secretary Michelle Stanistreet pointed out that while Henderson said she had not been forced to strip, “she should not have been asked to in the first place”.
“It was highly inappropriate of the paper to ask the young woman, who presumably wanted to impress, to do such a task. What would have happened if she had said no?”
Stanistreet linked the incident to the incidents of newsroom bullying presented to the Leveson Inquiry, including the case of one NUJ member who was forced to walk the streets wearing a Lady Gaga-style meat dress.
“Why didn’t she resign?” pondered Rupert Murdoch, when asked about the case, only for Lord Justice Leveson to drolly interject: “I think the problem with that might be that she needs a job.”
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