The Colombian singer Shakira and her boyfriend Gerard Pique’s driving has prompted a group of Catalan photographers and editors to publish a statement “before something bad happens and we can’t fix it.”
In a letter published in the Spanish Vanity Fair magazine, the Barcelona journalists denounced footballer Pique’s dangerous driving, claiming he “drives in urban areas at speeds way over the limit, does not respect red lights, drives in zig-zags and parks his cars on the pavement.”
In a morbid reference to Princess Diana, who was infamously killed when the car she was in was trying to escape from paparazzi 15 years ago, the journalists claimed they were forced to act as they “don’t want to have another Lady Di on the hands of our profession.”
The night that prompted the letter was only one in a series of dangerous driving incidents, according to the journalists. The couple had been dining with some relatives and upon leaving the restaurant “they escaped by speeding and driving in the wrong direction and running red lights. That night they fled at full speed…. about 180 km/h when the speed limit is 80. We not only have photos but videos to prove it,” a photographer told Vanity Fair.
The paparazzi accused pregnant Shakira and Pique of using their “whim” with the public authorities, and said the couple even told Barcelona police that the journalists “could be terrorists,” when according to the journalists, Shakira’s security “knows perfectly well all of us who work in the city, and our vehicles.”
According to the letter the law allows the journalists to photograph “public persons in public places,” and they beg to be allowed to “work with maximum safety and without reprisals … before we have an unfortunate accident.”
The journalists say they have offered to come to an agreement with the couple when times and dates for photographs would be arranged, but that their offer was turned down “with no explanation, they even said that there would be no more photographs.”
According to Vanity Fair the couple “has made constant traffic offenses to avoid photos that they then post quite naturally on their Twitter accounts.”
“The boy who behaves like a brat millionaire will any day cause a disaster,” a photographer is reported to have said.
