A Kiss Is Just a Kiss--Except in Saudi Arabia

LONDON —  Millions of people around the world last week saw pictures of the newlywed Duke and Duchess of York kissing--but not a London newspaper’s subscribers in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi censors put black ink to pictures of the couple kissing, citing compliance with Islamic law.

The Daily Telegraph’s Thursday edition published a partially blacked-out front page photograph of the duke kissing the duchess to show readers what the Saudi censors did to its royal wedding supplement.

British businessman David Llewellyn wrote to the newspaper from Riyadh saying it was “bad enough” having the legs of tennis players, female cyclists and ballerinas blacked out.

“We feel, however, that this example of the mutilation of a picture of members of our Royal Family is in extreme bad taste and demonstrates the nasty side of the Saudi censor,” he wrote.

Another letter writer noted, “We shudder to think what would have happened to us if we had mutilated a photograph of any member of the Saudi Royal Family.

“They still chop hands off here,” he said.

A spokesman at the Saudi Embassy in London said that “no offense was intended.”

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “We have nothing at all to say about this.”