Magazines are a growing cause of offence with watchdogs upholding more complaints against them than newspapers.
With a glut of celebrity magazines providing a lucrative new home for paparazzi photographs, the Press Complaints Commission now faces a new regulatory battle.
Sources at the PCC, which ruled against OK! magazine for publishing unauthorised photographs of Prince William while on his gap year, said today it had upheld more decisions against magazines than against any other section of the press in the past year.
The PCC ruled that the magazine was guilty of "harassment" and "breach of privacy", after photographs appeared of the prince in the South American jungle.
According to sources, the photographs had been offered to all the tabloid newspapers but had been turned down.
The PCC refused to comment on the ruling until its official publication, which will not be made until three months after the date of the complaint.
But an insider said that the growth of the magazines sector and the importance of showbusiness in news meant that magazines now had as high profile a role in press ethics as newspapers.
The PCC has made a number of rulings against magazines concerning privacy and ethics, notably against Hello! for publishing pictures of Sir Paul McCartney praying in a cathedral, FHM for an article about student suicide, and Front for paying former gangster Reggie Kray.
The commission decided to investigate the Prince William incident following a complaint by Stephen Lamporte, principal private secretary to the Prince of Wales. The ruling, which is the first concerning the prince, is likely to be seen as a warning to the press before he starts university next year.
The ruling is understood to state that the prince was in a place where he would normally have been able to expect a reasonable degree of privacy.
An insider said: "The view that the commission took was that he was so far into the jungle that it's a bit different from just walking down the King's Road."
Meanwhile, the commission is waiting to hear from the Mail on Sunday as to whether it can resolve a complaint made by Buckingham Palace on behalf of Prince Andrew, after the paper published a story linking the prince with an alleged drug dealer.
