Prince Harry apologizes to Rupert Murdoch newspapers in settlement agreement
Prince Harry claimed a “monumental” victory over Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group on Wednesday, settling a publisher lawsuit, admitting wrongdoing at the Sun tabloid for the first time and paying unspecified damages.
King Charles’ youngest son Harry, 40, is suing the Sun and the long-defunct News of the World at London’s High Court, alleging News Groups Newspapers (NGN) unlawfully obtained personal information about him since 1996. 2011.
News Group offered a “full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex” for the “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of personal data by journalists and private investigators instructed by them,” Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne said in a statement read in court. .
Sherborne said NGN agreed to pay substantial damages and NGN admitted Harry was the victim of illegal activity by the Sun and phone hacking by the News of the World.
Hear from David Sherborne, Prince Harry’s lawyer, after a settlement was reached in his long-running privacy lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers on Wednesday.
Sherborne said it was “time for accountability” and called on British police and the UK government to launch investigations, alleging that NGN executives helped clean up 30 million emails over the years and obstructed a civil case.
Saying that the plaintiffs intend to present to the police “a dossier exposing the mistakes”, the lawyer also targeted Rebekah Brooks, who was the editor of the “Sun” newspaper in 2003-2009.
Brooks resigned from the parent company, known as News Corp UK, shortly before he was arrested in July 2011 on suspicion of conspiracy to suppress communications and other charges. He was acquitted at trial in 2014 and joined News Corp UK the following year.
“At the trial in 2014, Rebekah Brooks said, ‘When I was editor of The Sun, we ran a clean ship,'” Sherburne said. , ran a criminal enterprise when he was editor of The Sun.”
Apologies to Harry in full
“NGN offers a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for serious intrusions into his privacy by The Sun between 1996 and 2011, including incidents of misconduct by private investigators employed by The Sun,” News Group’s apology was read.
“NGN also offers a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the hacking, surveillance and misuse of personal data by journalists and private investigators trained at the News of the World.
“NGN further apologizes to the Duke for the impact on his private life, as well as that of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, particularly in his youth, of extensive coverage and severe intrusion into his private life.
“We apologize for the distress, relationships, friendships and family the Duke has experienced and agree to pay him substantial compensation.”
The News Group says the malicious acts are a thing of the past
Harry has long criticized British tabloids for their reporting and paparazzi, suing a number of British tabloid press outlets.
It first sued NGN in 2019, and an eight-week trial to decide their hotly contested claim was due to begin on Tuesday.
Harry, who became the first senior royal to appear as a witness in a separate trial in 2023 in 130 years, was due to testify next month.
Harry is believed to be in California, where he currently resides.
Harry admitted in a British documentary that the crusade was “part of a rift” with members of the royal family.
King Charles opposed the court, Harry said in legal documents.
NGN has paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone hacking and other illegal data collection by News of the World and settled more than 1,300 lawsuits involving celebrities, politicians, prominent sports figures and ordinary people associated with them. they or major events.
But he has always denied there was wrongdoing at the Sun newspaper, or that any senior officials knew about it or tried to cover it up, as Harry claims.
In a statement, an NGN spokesperson said the apology was not for the journalists, but for the illegal actions of the private investigators working for The Sun.
“We have strong controls and processes in place across all our titles today to ensure this doesn’t happen now. There has been no interception of voicemails at The Sun,” the spokesman said, adding that the settlement was the last possibility of any litigation and that it would be forthcoming. cases had to be discarded.
Sian Harrison, London-based author and media law expertHarry won a “significant” settlement from the Sun, but the tabloid and its corporate executives would be happy to avoid publication of the damaging claims in court, CBC News said.
While the prince has promised to pursue the case all the way to the courtroom, Harrison said he believes the fact that British civil law imposes prohibitive legal costs on those who lose their lawsuits is undoubtedly a factor.
Harrison added that despite Sherborne’s out-of-court comments, it was “very unlikely” any further criminal charges would result after all these years.
The British MP also apologizes
Labour’s Tom Watson, who sits in the House of Lords, was due to be part of a trial over similar allegations, as was the Duke of Sussex. Watson also apologized to Murdoch on Wednesday.
NGN offered “a full and unequivocal apology to Lord Watson for the unjustified intrusion into his privacy by the News of the World between 2009 and 2011 during his time in government”.
Tom Watson, the former deputy leader of the Labor Party, who also won on Wednesday, praised the British prince’s courage and determination in fighting tabloids owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch and others.
Harry and Watson said in a joint statement that NGN has paid out more than £1 billion ($1.77 billion) over the years.
In her speech outside court, Watson praised Harry’s “bravery and amazing courage” in pursuing the case “under extraordinary pressure”.
MP Rupert Murdoch has called for a personal apology to Harry and others whose privacy has been breached by organizations in his media empire.
Hugh Grant settled with NGN last year over allegations that journalists used private investigators to wiretap his phone and burglarize his home. The actor expressed reluctance to do so, but said the legal costs were potentially prohibitive and that he would donate the proceeds of the settlement he won to press advocacy groups.
The News of the World has closed after 168 years following a phone-hacking scandal.
In 2011, at a hearing in the British Parliament, Murdoch expressed regret for what happened to his newspapers in England, but insisted that he took no personal responsibility.
Prince Harry is declaring victory after a London judge said he was the victim of phone hacking by British publisher Mirror Group Newspapers.
“The people I trust to run it, maybe the people they trust,” he said.
Murdoch’s companies own a number of other news organizations around the world, including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in the US, the Times of London in the UK and several in his native Australia.
Harry was awarded £140,600 (about $240,430) after London’s High Court ruled he was the victim of “modest” phone hacking and other illegal data collection by journalists at Britain’s Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).
Harry sued MGN, publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People newspapers.
But the Duke of Sussex was ordered to pay the Daily Mail’s legal costs in another failed legal bid, which he later dropped.
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