Prince Harry’s last-minute settlement of a long-running lawsuit with Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids was prominently featured on the front pages of several London newspapers on Thursday, but not in Murdoch’s own newspapers.
The Sun admitted wrongdoing by the private detectives it hired to dig up Prince Harry’s personal information more than a decade ago, but didn’t mention the story until page six. Mr Murdoch’s flagship newspaper, the London Times, reported on the matter on the morning of the 25th. At the bottom of page 12, next to a report about actress Judi Dench’s vision loss.
The Daily Mail, whose publisher, Associated Newspapers, is being sued by Prince Harry for allegedly hacking his phone and violating his privacy, also reported the news on its inside page, as well as on its publisher’s Mirror.・The Daily Mirror, whose Group Newspapers was the victim of phone hacking, also reported this news on its inside page. A lawsuit will be filed against Harry in 2023.
The harsh reality of going to war with Britain’s tabloids is that Prince Harry filed multiple lawsuits in 2019 against three major publishers: Associated Newspapers, Mirror Group and Mr Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers. The same thing happened when I filed my first lawsuit. The Daily Mail case is scheduled to go to trial next year.
Even newspapers that are not in litigation with Harry, such as the right-wing Daily Telegraph, covered the deal negatively. “Harry falls after paying out eight-figure payout,” the Telegraph said in a front-page article, adding, “His quest to overthrow part of the Murdoch empire has been more of a failure than a resounding success. ” he added.
Critics of the media coverage said it downplayed the significance of what Harry extracted. Significantly, News Group Newspapers is the first to reveal that there was misconduct not only at the News of the World tabloid, which Murdoch closed down in 2011, but also at his main British tabloid, The Sun. That’s what I admitted.
The news group stressed that its approval applies to private investigators, not the Sun’s editors or reporters. However, for the past few years the paper has been edited by Rebecca Brooks, who is now the chief executive of News UK (News UK’s subsidiary News Group Newsletters publishes The Sun).
Harry’s fellow complainant, former Labor deputy leader Tom Watson, said he would hand over documents to police outlining evidence of criminal activity. Prince Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne has called on police and parliament to investigate not only misconduct at The Sun, but also evidence of perjury and cover-ups by current and former news executives.
Peter Hunt, the BBC’s former royal correspondent, said: “For those who are interested in accountable media, Prince Harry’s case was in fact an act in the public interest; It was a huge sacrifice for myself.” “He made them accept things they had been unwilling to accept for years.”
“Unfortunately for him, the public doesn’t appreciate that,” Hunt added. “Much of their understanding of what Harry is up to is through the lens of a media that is relentlessly hostile to him.”
Since Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle announced their plans to leave the UK in 2020, media coverage has been relentlessly negative. That took a huge toll on their popularity. A poll conducted in the UK late last year by pollster YouGov found Prince Harry’s approval rating was 32%, compared to 74% for his younger brother William. Meghan’s approval rating was 19%, the lowest for a prominent royal.
“The blackening of Prince Harry and his wife’s name by a large section of Fleet Street is truly awful to watch,” Alan Rusbridger, former editor of the Guardian newspaper, told Channel 4 on Wednesday in London. He spoke while referring to the traditional newspaper publishing avenue. “It almost seems like a deliberate tactic to discredit someone who poses a threat to them.”
In this case, Prince Harry may have deepened his predicament by stressing the need for a trial. Speaking at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit last month, he explained that under British law, a plaintiff who refuses to settle for more than the amount awarded by the court ends up paying both parties’ legal costs. News Group Newspapers has already spent more than $1 billion resolving 1,300 phone-hacking lawsuits, and only Prince Harry and Mr. Watson decided to take the case to court.
“They had to reconcile, so they did,” Harry said. “So one of the main reasons to see this through is accountability, because I’m the last person who can actually accomplish that.”
But just before the trial began, Prince Harry agreed to a settlement worth at least 10 million pounds ($12.3 million). As Piers Morgan, a broadcaster and vocal critic of the prince, posted on social media“So ‘morality campaigner’ Prince Harry accepted the cash.”
Prince Harry has not said what he plans to do with the money. His legal costs will be significant, but media lawyer Daniel Taylor said they would normally be covered by parties offering to settle the case in a separate payment. He did not comment beyond the statement read by Sherborn.
But in some ways, Prince Harry’s decision to reconcile could ease tensions with his family. He said last year that his campaign against the tabloids was a major cause of rifts between his brother William and their father, King Charles III.
Prince Harry has a “secret agreement” with News Group that allows him to put legal claims on hold to avoid having to testify about the potentially embarrassing content of intercepted voicemail messages. He claimed that he had agreed to either do so or reach a settlement. Her brother, William, settled with News Group in 2020 for a “huge” payout, court documents state.
Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, where Prince William has his official residence, declined to comment on the settlement.
By joining his brother in the deal, Prince Harry could avoid another embarrassing scene for the royal family. But Mr Hunt and other royal watchers say this is the only way to close a rift that includes painful issues such as the family’s treatment of Meghan and her airing of dirty laundry in her memoir Spare. He warned us not to draw that conclusion.
“The damage is too deep to be resolved in one trial,” Hunt said. “The cracks are widening.”
