Over 36 years, The Independent’s approach to royal coverage has evolved

Covering the death of the Queen in news, pictures and comment is not just a duty for a serious media outlet, it is also a responsibility, writes David Lister

While we aimed some barbs at the younger royals, The Independent was never disrespectful to the Queen (PA)

At the crack of dawn on Sunday morning, I stood in Westminster Hall to see the Queen’s lying-in-state. That would have seemed a very surreal thought back in 1986 at The Independent’s launch.

In August of that year, two months before the official launch (and with the Queen less than halfway through her reign), I sat in the home editor’s garden, with a few other members of staff, debating our policy on, among other things, how we were to treat the royal family.

We decided we would give it far less space than our rivals, and the paper soon gained a reputation for doing exactly that – delighting many readers, and probably puzzling others. Andreas Whittam Smith, the founder editor, said we had “a tinge of republicanism” and that we should “avoid fawning coverage”.