Germany's Bild newspaper drops topless model photos from its pages

Publish date: 2024-08-10

Germany's biggest-selling newspaper will end its decades-long practice of publishing photos of topless female models.

'We will show no more topless productions of our own with women,' The Bild announced on Monday.

The daily paper said it increasingly felt 'many women find these pictures offensive or degrading, both here in the editorial department and among our female readers'.

Germany's biggest-selling newspaper will end its decades-long practice of publishing photos of topless female models such as these

Germany's biggest-selling newspaper will end its decades-long practice of publishing photos of topless female models such as these

Bild banished topless models from the front page to the inside pages in 2012, but continued publishing them elsewhere in the paper.

Monday's announcement appeared on page nine, with pictures of a scantily clad woman 'in the new, more contemporary style of photography'.

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The page showed photos of Bild 'girl of the year' Carolin Pauli, 27, in a white tank top rolled up to show her midriff, but see-through on her breasts.

'This is to the new Bild girls. Men, you must be strong now!' the headline read.

'These photos serve one main purpose: They are supposed to entertain, mostly men. We do not believe that men's entertainment should be offensive to women (and of course not vice versa),' the article explained.

Monday's announcement appeared on page nine with pictures of scantily-clad model Carolin Pauli, 27, 'in the new, more contemporary style of photography'

Monday's announcement appeared on page nine with pictures of scantily-clad model Carolin Pauli, 27, 'in the new, more contemporary style of photography'

 'This is to the new Bild girls. Men, you must be strong now!' the headline announcing the change read

 'This is to the new Bild girls. Men, you must be strong now!' the headline announcing the change read

Bild said it would be 'more careful and thoughtful' when choosing pictures but promised to 'keep giving' erotic art as it was 'a great achievement of free societies'.

'It should stimulate the imagination, it may and must also provoke. It may even hurt and hurt feelings, for example, if it is politically relevant,' it said.

'She must never surrender to prudery or shower in front of self-proclaimed guardians of virtue. But she should not hurt to create entertainment.'

Bild said though it wouldn't produce its own topless pictures, 'there are also naked photos that the country talks about' that would still find their way into its pages.

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