Prince Harry hails ‘monumental’ legal win over Murdoch newspapers
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Prince Harry says his lawsuit against Mr Rupert Murdoch's media empire is about accountability, not money.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – Prince Harry claimed a “monumental” victory over billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group on Jan 22 after the publisher settled his lawsuit, admitting unlawful actions at its Sun tabloid for the first time and paying substantial damages.
Prince Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles, sued News Group Newspapers
NGN also admitted it intruded into the private life of Prince Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana. A source familiar with the settlement said the damages involved an eight-figure sum.
“In a monumental victory today, News UK has admitted that The Sun, the flagship title for Rupert Murdoch’s UK media empire, has indeed engaged in illegal practices,” Prince Harry and his co-claimant, British lawmaker Tom Watson, said in a statement.
“Today, the lies are laid bare. Today, the cover-ups are exposed. And today proves that no one stands above the law. The time for accountability has arrived,” said the statement, read by their lawyer, Mr David Sherborne, outside the High Court.
The trial to consider Prince Harry’s case, and a similar lawsuit from Mr Watson, was due to start on Jan 21 but, following last-gasp talks, the two sides reached a settlement, with NGN saying there was wrongdoing at The Sun, something it had denied for years.
“NGN offers a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life, including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for The Sun,” Mr Sherborne told the court.
“NGN further apologises to the Duke for the impact on him of the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life, as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, in particular during his younger years.”
It also admitted targeting Mr Watson, including when he was a junior minister under then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was due to give evidence if the trial had gone ahead.
‘Strong controls’
In a statement, an NGN spokesman said its apology was for the unlawful actions of private investigators working for The Sun, not of its journalists.
“There are strong controls and processes in place at all our titles today to ensure this cannot happen now. There was no voicemail interception on The Sun,” the spokesman said, adding that the settlement marked the likely end of any lawsuits and that future cases were liable to be thrown out.
NGN has paid out hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone hacking and other unlawful information gathering by the News of the World, and settled more than 1,300 lawsuits involving celebrities, politicians, well-known sports figures and ordinary people who were connected to them or major events.
In their joint statement, Prince Harry and Mr Watson said NGN has now paid out more than £1 billion (S$1.67 billion).
NGN previously always rejected any claims that there was wrongdoing at The Sun newspaper, or that any senior figures knew about it or tried to cover it up, as Prince Harry’s lawsuit alleges.
Prince Harry said his mission was to establish the truth and for the publishers’ executives and editors to be held to account after other claimants settled cases to avoid the risk of a multi-million-pound legal bill that could be imposed even if they had won in court but had rejected NGN’s offer.
Prince Harry’s main target had been Ms Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of The Sun for part of the period when NGN admitted there was unlawful behaviour and is now the chief executive of News UK, News Corp’s British arm.
“They now admit, when she was editor of The Sun, they ran a criminal enterprise,” Prince Harry and Mr Watson’s statement said, adding they wanted the police and Parliament to investigate “the perjury and cover-ups”.
However, NGN’s apology made no direct reference to any wrongdoing by its senior figures, nor to the allegation that there had been any cover-up by current or former executives.
London police said it had no active investigation ongoing.
“We await any correspondence from the parties involved, which we will respond to in due course,” a spokesman said. REUTERS
