LONDON — The prince has no clothes — but most British newspapers aren’t running the pictures.

The country’s scandal-loving tabloids devoted many pages Thursday to the story of Prince Harry’s naked romp in a Las Vegas hotel suite.

While all initially heeded a warning from royal officials that printing the images would infringe on the prince’s privacy, The Sun tabloid said late Thursday it would publish the images in today’s edition — making it the first British paper to put a naked Harry on display. The pictures will run with the headline “Heir it is!”

The Sun, Britain’s bestselling daily paper, had creatively avoided splashing a naked Harry on its Thursday front page by getting a staff member named Harry and a 21-year-old female intern to recreate the naked pose under the headline “Harry grabs the crown jewels.”

The Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid said it had decided to run the images because the issue has become about freedom of the press. “We’ve thought long and hard about this,” managing editor David Dinsmore said, adding that the paper works closely with the royal family and takes heed of their wishes.

Dinsmore said the decision isn’t because the paper is against Harry “letting his hair down.”

“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.”

Ireland’s Evening Herald ran the stark-naked prince on its front page Thursday, but the British newspapers had made do with pictures of holiday Harry in bathing trunks and fedora hat.

Bob Satchwell, head of industry group the Society of Editors, said papers were merely complying with editors’ voluntary Code of Practice, which declares “it is unacceptable to photograph individuals in private places without their consent.”

But other media-watchers said a scandal that erupted a year ago over phone-hacking and other tabloid wrongdoing had tamed Britain’s once-rambunctious press.

The scandal has killed one tabloid, the News of the World — shut down by Murdoch after revelations about its eavesdropping.