At the risk of being thrown in the Tower of London, British tabloid The Sun will publish the nude photos of Prince Harry that TMZ obtained earlier this week.

The Sun will be the first mainstream British paper to publish the pics. There was some speculation that tabloids would stay away from the grainy, ass-baring photos entirely.

But The Sun's managing editor David Dinsmore made a very obvious point: anyone who wants to see the photos can easily find them online.

This is about the ludicrous situation where a picture can be seen by hundreds of millions of people around the world on the Internet, but can't be seen in the nation's favorite paper read by 8 million people every day.

He also said they thought "long and hard" about it, because that is exactly the kind of terminology you want to use when discussing naked pictures.

According to Dinsmore, The Sun "works closely with the royal family" and wants to "take heed of their wishes." Really? Because I'm pretty sure they wish you wouldn't publish those pics.

Regardless, this is about freedom.

We are not against [Prince Harry] letting his hair down once in a while. For us, this is about the freedom of the press.

Well, as long as we're clear on the fact that Harry is allowed to be a charming cad.

[Image via AP]