Britain's Queen Elizabeth has written to newspaper and magazine editors over the issue of paparazzi photographers intruding¹ on the royal family's privacy, Buckingham Palace said on Sunday.

英国白金汉宫于上周日称，日前，女王伊丽莎白二世致信报刊杂志的编辑，就狗仔队侵犯王室隐私一事表明自己的态度。

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"The letter was sent to editors in response to响应，回答 many years of the royal family being hounded狩猎，追捕 by photographers on the Queen's private property," her press office said.

There were no details of the contents of the "private and not for publication" letter, sent by a royal lawyer on the queen's behalf, or when it was sent. But the Sunday Telegraph said the royals were now ready to take legal action if photographers took pictures of them while they were "off duty下班."

It said they could sue for控告 breach³ of privacy or take action under protection of harassment⁴烦恼，骚扰 laws. "Members of the royal family feel they have a right to privacy when they are going about everyday, private activities," said Paddy Harverson, spokesman for the queen's son Prince Charles.

"They recognize there is a public interest in them and what they do, but they do not think this extends to photographing the private activities of them and their friends." The royal family have long had a strained紧张的，勉强的 relationship with the media, especially after the death of Charles's first wife Princess Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi狗仔队 photographers.

In recent years Diana's eldest⁵ son Prince William and his girlfriend Kate Middleton have found themselves targeted by press and magazine photographers. Taking legal action would see the royals following in the footsteps of Princess Caroline of Monaco, who won 10,000 euros ($15,000) in damages at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 2005 over German press photos of her and her family.

The court backed Caroline's claim that the pictures had violated her right to respect for her private life. The first test of the new royal stance位置，立场 is likely to come later this month when the queen is joined by other members of the royal family during her regular Christmas visit to her Sandringham estate in Norfolk, in eastern England.

In the past, freelance自由职业者 photographers have spent hours on the estate, whose gardens are open to the public, with long distance lenses hoping to snatch夺得 a photo of the royals at play, the Sunday Telegraph noted⁶.