General News about the Danish Royal Family Part 2: January 2013 - November 2015

[Muhler]

And the Se & Hør saga continues: BT afslører: Her er Se og Hør-fotografen, der fortalte PET alt - Danmark | www.bt.dk

A freelance photographer, Michael Medgyesi, who was attached to the magazine from 2006-2011 apparantly felt the methods used were disturbing, and he suspected that someone was hacking celebrities credit card info.
Without having any decisive evidence he contacted PET in 2011, who dispatched two officers to talk to him.
Apparantly he did not mention that highranking politicians and members of the DRF were among those who were monitored, presumably because he didn't know. Which makes it not a national security matter, but a case for the ordinary police.
Whatever, the photographer didn't hear more from PET and later on they only confirmed to him that they had indeed spoken to him.
PET has informed the Minister of Justice that they did look briefly into the matter but didn't find any ground for futher action. An investigation has now been launched.

The same photographer contacted Nets, which the credit cards, and told them about his suspicions. Initially they didn't return to him, but when pressed they explained they had investigated the matter and found no reason for taking action.

In short: there has been not only a breakdown of moral and common sense at Se & Hør and Aller, but there has also been a series of failures in the security systems around the credit cards. The typical complacency that so often takes over after a while.
And again, if it happened here in DK it has or will happen elsewhere as well...
So if I was a celeb I would start using cash.

 

[Muhler]

As a follow up on previous post: Ekstra Bladet - Se og Hør-sagen: Aller ransaget igen

The court has decided that Aller must hand over material to the police.
The material previously wanted by the police has so far been locked away in a room.
Today the police came to collect the material, apparantly Aller wasn't particularly willing because a police officer is quoted for stating, that either the door to the room was opened or they "would kick in the door".

The ruling by the court has been appealed, which means that the police is in possesion of the material but cannot look at it until the appeal court has ruled.

- Aller is fighting a losing battle.

 

[Muhler]

Se og Hør talte om at aflytte kronprins Frederiks telefon | Kultur | DR
Retsordførere: Politiet bør undersøge om Se og Hør aflyttede kronprinsen | Politik | DR

And it gets worse.

DR1 has made a documentary where a number of employees at Se & Hør, including the then editor-in-chief, Henrik Qvortrup, back in 2003 seriously considered bugging Frederik's mobile phone.
They were in possession of his number and a photographer had obtained catalogues from Britain, where equipment for bugging phones could be bought.
Back the it was technically a relatively simple process to bug a phone.
(I remember reading somewhere that FET were installing equipment to secure datalinks, when M&F's manision was renovated).

Henrik Qvortrup confirms that bugging was discussed at a meeting with four people in 2003.
The purpose was to be the first to get pictures of the then Mary Donaldson at Amalienborg.
However, the plans were abandoned. Henrik Qvortrup will however not comment on whether phones were bugged later on.
The top manager at Aller, Pål Thore Krosby, denies any knowledge of any possible bugging.

That has caused an uproar among politicians here in DK who demand a throrough investigation.

 

[polyesco]

thank you Muhler for keeping us inform.

I wonder what stopped them from "pulling the trigger" and not bugging his phone?

 

[Muhler]

thank you Muhler for keeping us inform.

I wonder what stopped them from "pulling the trigger" and not bugging his phone?

Well, Qvortrup has in a press release today, claimed that he rejected the suggestion to bug on the spot. However DR1 is showing the documentary tonight and it will remain to be seen what impression he makes there.

This has now led him to be withdrawn from a TV show he was scheduled to appear in.

 

[MaggieDenmark]

now the police will investigate whether frederik and marys phones conversations were tapped

Berlingske.dk

 

[Muhler]

Allers Udgiverdirektør trælkker sig: Der er brugt metoder jeg ikke kan stå inde for | Kultur | DR

The latest news in the Se & Hør scandal is that Per Ingdal, the second highest ranking in the Aller management, has resigned due to the scandal.

In the meantime employees and editors are busy pointing their fingers at eachother, no one will take the heat for someone else.

DR1 had a documentary about Se & Hør the other day, and it was bad! Very bad for the management at Aller in particular.
Aller, and not only Se & Hør, has now made serious enemies among the top politicians, the DRF and a lot of high prfile journalists as well.
As the politicians have started to discuss more serious sanctions against papers and magazines who breach the rules for good press ethics or publish incorret stories, the rest of the press corps want the editors and now management at Aller's heads on a plate!

 

[Muhler]

Undskyldende Aller-topchef afviser at lukke Se og Hør - Indland

Chairman of the board at Aller in Denmark, Bettina Aller, has in an interview apologized to those who were victims of the illegal methods used by Se & Hør.
Bettina Aller is a member of the Aller family who de facto own the magazine empire. Various members of the family sit in the boards of different Scandinavian countries.

She claims that she is shocked and appalled but that she had no idea that such methods were used.
In fact she takes no interest whatsoever (as the chairman of the board, remember...) in the details of the various magazines. She doesn't even know the contents of the magazines until they hit the street.

She also states that there is no reason to shut down Se & Hør, because it's not S&H as a magazine that is the issue, it's merely a few people at S&H who, allegedly, did something bad...

- Oh, blissful ignorance...

 

[SElizabeth]

Undskyldende Aller-topchef afviser at lukke Se og Hør - Indland

Chairman of the board at Aller in Denmark, Bettina Aller, has in an interview apologized to those who were victims of the illegal methods used by Se & Hør.
Bettina Aller is a member of the Aller family who de facto own the magazine empire. Various members of the family sit in the boards of different Scandinavian countries.

She claims that she is shocked and appalled but that she had no idea that such methods were used.
In fact she takes no interest whatsoever (as the chairman of the board, remember...) in the details of the various magazines. She doesn't even know the contents of the magazines until they hit the street.

She also states that there is no reason to shut down Se & Hør, because it's not S&H as a magazine that is the issue, it's merely a few people at S&H who, allegedly, did something bad...

- Oh, blissful ignorance...

Now that statement really makes me , seems that the blissful ignorance from my congress is starting to find it's way across the ocean into various entities.............Oh, to be so damn blissful........!
Thanks for the update Muhler

 

[Muhler]

Aller will publish the results of their internal investigation into the Se & Hør scandal tomorrow Friday, but keep in mind that all the findings need not be published nor will everything be published.

Se og Hør-boss erkender ulovligheder - der kommer til at rulle hoveder - Danmark | www.bt.dk
Direktør varsler fyringer: Allers interne rapport afslører ulovligheder | Nyhederne.tv2.dk

A number of newsmedia, (but not all, not the most critical of Aller) were invited to a meeting with CEO of Aller, Pål Thore Krosby.

He himself knew nothing and as such cannot be held responsible, but there will be consequences for a number of employees at S&H, they will be fired.
At the same time there will be a clean up of S&H, but the magazine will continue under the current editor-in-chief.

Aller admits that a number of senior and more junior employees at S&H did use the illegal source at Nets (he has now been named with photo, after permission by the court, but presenting him here will serve little purpose IMO).
That senior employees at S&H pretended to stop co-operating with the source, after being told by the senior management to do so.
That payments to the source were not in accordance to guidelines within Aller.
That personal information were obtained illegally at the airflight company SAS, regarding the travel arrangement of certain celebs.

The persons who will be fired, will be notified Friday.

Another senior employees was formally charged by the police the other day.

- So no one at the very top knew anything. Well, we must hope for them that they are right, because those employees further down, who will face the consequences for all this will no doubt feel very little loyalty towards the senior management now.
So if it turns out that the senior management did know, there will now be plenty of people who will be more than willing to help the police shed more light on that detail. All based on the thought: If I'm going down, you are going down with me! We've already seen plenty of examples of that.

- You are welcome SElizabeth.

 

[Muhler]

Follow up on previous post.
Today three employees were sacked at Se & Hør. A journalist and two senior employees.
Journalist bekræfter: Jeg er færdig på Se og Hør - Danmark | www.bt.dk

Considering how many present employees who knew about the source, the number is low.

Experts in journalism are not impressed. They believe the Aller top management is trying to put a lid on the whole thing by sacking a few people fairly low down the chain of command, people who would end up getting the boot anyway, due to being so incriminated in all this.

The problem for the senior management at Aller is that the police investigation is not limited to Se & Hør alone but also looks at whether the company policy was the main factor behind the methods used at S&H.
The rest of the media here in DK don't seem to be willing to let go with just a few human sacrifices either.
With a hostile press, Aller is loosing the attempt to placate the public opinion, which was an extremely difficult thing to begin with.
So we haven't seen the last head roll in the senior management IMO.

It has also emerged that the source at Nets recieved 310.000 DKK for his information, in this and in Danish context that's serious money!
Undersøgelse: Så mange penge fik Tys-tys-kilden - Danmark | www.bt.dk
As only 90.000 DKK has been reported to the IRS, we are talking tax evasion as well. The taxman is coming to get them!

- What is so baffling about all this is that S&H only had one serious scoop from these illegal methods. And that was finding Joachim and our Marie on their honeymoon. All the other stories didn't seem to generate an extra sale worth mentioning.
It's like breaking into a house only to steal milk in the fridge. It's unbelievably stupid.

 

[Roskilde]

A new Gallup survey has been conducted by BT/Berlingske and published today:

Not very surprisingly, Mary and Frederik are the two most popular members of our royal family with Margrethe right behind. In fact, Mary is the most popular, Frederik are close behind her and Margrethe right behind Frederik. Those three are some strong profiles. Then there's a space before Henrik, Marie and Joachim comes in the written order.


1. CP Mary
2. CP Frederik
3. Q Margrethe

4. Prince Henrik
6. Princess Marie
7. Prince Joachim

Part of the the study is made by awarding points from 1-5 on who you think represents the royal family the best. Here for example Mary scores 4.8 out of 5,0 point, Frederik scores 4.7 out of 5,0 and Margrethe scores 4.6 out of 5,0 - pretty impressive results.


Henrik has increased in popularity and have never had greater popularity than he has now.

While the rest of the royal family has increased in popularity since last year's survey Prince Joachim and princess Marie are decreased in popularity. I think there are several reasons, but their recent decision to leave Schackenborg has damaged their image more than it maybe already was. It has been cause for much criticism over the past week and editors at newspapers and people are talking about: Do we have to pay apanage for a Prince number 6 in the succession (and even to his ex-wife too.) The choice is not good for Prince Joachim and wife, BUT I'm quite sure, very sure actually, this hasn't damage the royal family in general (as the new study show are Mary, Frederik, Margrethe and Henrik increased in popularity) and it's after all our Queen and Crown Prince Couple who are the top profiles in our royal family.

BT's cheif: http://blogs.bt.dk/leder/2014/07/10/er-der-plads-til-joachim-i-kobenhavn/


ADDED:
The study on Facebook which draws a clear picture of the Crown Prince couple's support from the Danes:
https://www.facebook.com/go.tv2.dk?fref=ts

 

[polyesco]

thank you Roskilde
It seems the CP couple and the Queen are highly regarded. and Henrik has certainly gained points with his 80th birthday celebrations/and interviews.

What are the numbers for Joachim and Marie?

 

[Blog Real]

I thought the Queen was the most popular. But I like to see Frederik and Mary with much popularity.

The Danes don't like Marie? I thought it was popular.

 

[ricarda]

I think the question (of the Gallup Survey) was not: Do you like her/him?
but: How does she/he represent the country?

 

[Muhler]

It's also a matter of picking one person on a list of names and in that respect the most prominent names tend to score higher marks.

But PH's popularity in particular has indeed gone up for real. Partly because of the exposure due to his birthday but also because he has finally been accepted by the tribe. When you are accepted by the tribe/village you are embraced. - If not, you are out in the cold, an outsider and treated as such.

Also, PH has become a cult figure among youths. That is a distinction a number of most unlikely people have gained over the years and indeed a testament to the fact the the young today have a keen sense of (loving) humor.

Other very unlikely people who have and perhaps still hold that distinction are the (schlager) singer Bodil Kjær. The late very pedagogical singer of children's songs Poul Kjøller and above them all the actor Ole Thestrup. (Whose career as a direct result of this has gone from absolute bottom as an alcoholic to now being one of the most beloved actors here in DK).

 

[Muhler]

Kongelig fodbold på Fredensvang - Aarhus | stiften.dk

These days the Regent Couple resides at Marselisborg Manor.
Each year conscripts from Dannebrog and members of the guards platoon from Royal Lifeguard Regiment standing guard at Marselisborg have a soccer match.
The match this year will take place Wednesday.

Sometimes Frederik and or Joachim watch the match and it happens that they take part in the match as well. (Perhaps on opposite sides if they are both there?)
Another example of little episodes that rarely hit the news.

 

[Fox]

I guess the leak on Nets to See and Hear also resulted in the story about Marie getting a breast enhancement at the clinic in France.

 

[Muhler]

If she did get a breast enhancement.

And if she did, I personally consider it none of my business until she goes public with it, if she ever will.

 

[nwinther]

If she did get a breast enhancement.

And if she did, I personally consider it none of my business until she goes public with it, if she ever will.

But the story that she did, did appear. Whether it was a lie or not is another matter. The story itself was real.

 

[Muhler]

The story appeared in Se & Hør, which makes it as close to fiction as you can get.
If it was based on a credit card I doubt very much the credit card statement was specified in details. 2 X breast enhancements + sedation + room and board.
She could have gone to that clinic for anything and until our Marie decides to appear topless or go public with her breasts in other ways, I consider her breasts very much to be a private matter.

 

[Muhler]

BB informs us that the Dutch Regent Couple are expected for an official state visit to DK in mid March 2015.
The visit is expected to last the usual three days.

Details and confirmation of the dates (16-18th March) are still to be determined.

Duing the visit King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will live at Fredensborg, due to the roof being renovated at Amalienborg.

You might expect WA&M to live with M&F since they are close friends, but that would be against the protocol as this is an official visit. So WA&M will live with their official hosts QMII & PH.

 

[nwinther]

The Danish "newspaper", Ekstra Bladet (republican and a general stain on humanity) has run an anti-monarchy campaign in the last few weeks.

Now the campaign is coming to an end and they are having an online vote where they ask the readers views on a some of the things they've been campaigning against.

A bit to my surprise there's remarkably many of the readers who are in favor of "business as usual". In general EB readers are republicans (and not very clever ones at that) and I'd suspect that after a massive campaign, there would be few left that was still in favor of the monarchy on that site.

Even their introductory article before the vote is heavily skewed and biased against the monarchy, prepping the voter to look stupid if they are even the slightest bit pro-monarchy.

There's still a comfortable margin against the monarchy on the votes - but it's still remarkable that the pro-side maintains 40+% on most questions asked.

 

[polyesco]

The Danish "newspaper", Ekstra Bladet (republican and a general stain on humanity) has run an anti-monarchy campaign in the last few weeks.

Now the campaign is coming to an end and they are having an online vote where they ask the readers views on a some of the things they've been campaigning against.

A bit to my surprise there's remarkably many of the readers who are in favor of "business as usual". In general EB readers are republicans (and not very clever ones at that) and I'd suspect that after a massive campaign, there would be few left that was still in favor of the monarchy on that site.

Even their introductory article before the vote is heavily skewed and biased against the monarchy, prepping the voter to look stupid if they are even the slightest bit pro-monarchy.

There's still a comfortable margin against the monarchy on the votes - but it's still remarkable that the pro-side maintains 40+% on most questions asked.

interesting. I wonder what are the survey questions. so even the republicans and after a anti-monarchy campaign, their readers are not really against the monarchy ?

thanks

 

[Muhler]

interesting. I wonder what are the survey questions. so even the republicans and after a anti-monarchy campaign, their readers are not really against the monarchy ?

thanks

The questions are:

Is the DRF too expensive?
Is it OK for the state to pay for Alexandra? (Her apanage).
Should the royals recieve gifts from businesses?
Should the royals pay taxes like the rest of us?
Should Joachim and Frederik's eight children recieve an apange when they grow up?

- I've noticed it often before. Ekstra Bladet so often go way over the top when being critical of the DRF that it annoys quite a few of the readers.
Also, keep in mind that those who read Ekstra Bladet online, may not necessarily buy the tabloid on a regular basis - if at all.

 

[ashelen]

Is this British grandmother the real Queen of Denmark? Woman claims to be the secret great grandchild of 'childless' Frederik VII and his ballerina wife | Daily Mail Online


is this true?

 

[Archduchess Zelia]

IIRC when it came out in the Danish press some weeks ago, Danish royal experts were quick to dismiss the claim. And seeing as Frederik VII's marriage to Countess Danner was morganatic – a left-hand marriage – her grandmother would never have been able to inherit the throne anyway, so the title of the article is DM-grandiosity/ignorance as per usual.

 

[Muhler]

QMII will abdicate within weeks, and that means Mary will become queen Mary very soon.

- Says Women's Weekly: It's official! Our Aussie Queen Mary! : Woman's Day

 

[MarNoe]

QMII will abdicate within weeks, and that means Mary will become queen Mary very soon.

- Says Women's Weekly: It's official! Our Aussie Queen Mary! : Woman's Day

I wonder what they were smoking and/or drinking when they came up with that story?!?!?!?

 

[FasterB]

If the coronation really was underway in no way would it be out in Australia and not here in DK.