Alan Rusbridger criticises Oxford students over Emma Watson image which did not ‘respect privacy’

The actress was recently named visiting fellow at the university

Ms Watson recently announced she is taking a year out from acting to concentrate on work within feminism (Getty)

The head of an Oxford college has criticised students for “refusing to respect the privacy” of guests after an image surfaced online of actress Emma Watson touring one of the institution’s libraries.

According to the university’s independent student newspaper, Cherwell, Alan Rusbridger - former editor-in-chief of the Guardian and now principal of Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) - was quoted in an email confirming student speculation that Ms Watson had indeed visited Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) for “a preliminary discussion”.

Sent to the entire LMH Junior Common Room body - the college’s own “mini students’ union” - on behalf of the principal, JCR president Emma Andrews’ message highlighted that Mr Rusbridger said: “I showed her the library. A student evidently took a sneak picture of her which is now on Twitter.

“I can’t think of anything more guaranteed to undermine the programme of visiting fellows than our students refusing to respect the privacy of our guests.”

The actress - who achieved global stardom through her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film franchise - was recently appointed visiting fellow at the University of Oxford, and also announced she is taking a year out from acting to concentrate on work within feminism and women’s rights.

According to the college, visiting fellows are appointed for three years and it is hoped they will “debate, perform, challenge, and engage” with the fellows, tutors, support staff, and students. “One or two have already come up with other ideas for how they might use their relationship with LMH to develop other projects and thinking,” LMH’s announcement said.

Mr Rusbridger’s message to LMH students added that Ms Watson is eager to speak with other students and has “imaginative plans” for her time at LMH. However, Cherwell reports he added: “But it simply won’t work if our students behave in this way.”

Mr Rusbridger requested students remove the image of Ms Watson from social media, reminding them of “the basic courtesy we owe to our visiting fellows.”

A spokesperson for LMH told the Independent: “The visit was a private one and we are not going to comment on it, other than to say we take the personal privacy of all our visiting fellows very seriously.”

In 2013 - as editor-in-chief of the Guardian - Mr Rusbridger was questioned by MPs, over the paper’s controversial publication of secret files leaked by Edward Snowden, where he was asked to prove his patriotism and accused of having broken Britain’s terror laws.

Facing the Home Affairs Select Committee at the time, Mr Rusbridger said: “We are patriots and one of the things we are patriotic about is the nature of a democracy and the nature of a free press.”