ROYAL FEVER - OR BAD JOURNALISM?

ROYAL FEVER - OR BAD JOURNALISM?

In spite of being a republic and proud of it's non-royalist founding principles of "liberté, égalité et fraternitié", whenever a big royal event happens in the UK, France catches royal fever!

When Prince William married Kate, I was asked by a Paris- based company to organise a special event to mark the occasion! Although unable to broadcast the event, I sat up a stand with British flags, pictures of the royal couple, typical English food and sweets together with a royal-based quiz. Needless to say, the event was a huge success!!

So it's hardly surprising that the birth of Kate & William's daughter was given mass media attention. Reporters giving live updates, speculation about the sex of the child, the bookies odds of the name to be chosen...in short, exactly the same as the British press.

Indeed, the written press was swift to transmit the news, and the May 3rd edition of the Sunday papre "Journal de Dimanche", even included a photo plus an English title!

The event reported in the Journal du Dimanche (May 3rd, 2015)

Unfortunately, the journalist, Camille Neveux, got a little over excited and managed to write what is, at least, a slightly ambiguous sentence...

A rather ambiguous sentence!

Roughly translated, this would read "after Prince George, Kate and William gave birth yesterday morning..."

Does this mean that the (as-yet) unnamed Princess was born not once but three times? The mind boggles!

A case of royal fever with a republican twist for good measure!