Prince Harry hails legal ‘victory’ over Murdoch papers
Prince Harry has claimed a “monumental” victory over Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group after the publisher settled his lawsuit and gave a rare apology.
For the first time, News Group Newspapers admitted “unlawful activities” at its tabloid newspaper The Sun while reporting on Harry.
In a further stunning admission, NGN said it had also been involved in “serious intrusion” of the private life of Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana.
A source familiar with the settlement said the damages involved an eight-figure sum — reportedly $20 million.
“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,” Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne said.
“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.”
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Harry, 40, had sued NGN, publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, at the High Court in London.
He alleged the papers had illegally obtained private information about him between 1996-2011.
“In a monumental victory today, News UK have admitted that The Sun, the flagship title for Rupert Murdoch’s UK media empire, has indeed engaged in illegal practices,” Harry and his co-claimant Tom Watson said.
“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 Sherborne outside the High Court.
The trial to consider Harry’s case, and a similar lawsuit from former senior MP Watson, had been due to start on Tuesday (UK time).
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But following last-gasp talks, the two sides reached a settlement, with NGN admitting there had been wrongdoing at The Sun – after denying that for years.
It also admitted targeting Watson, including when he was a junior minister under then British prime minister Gordon Brown, who had been due to give evidence if the trial had gone ahead.
In a statement, an NGN spokesperson 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 spokesperson 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 1300 lawsuits involving celebrities, politicians, well-known sports figures and ordinary people who were connected to them or major events.
In their joint statement, Harry and Watson said NGN had paid out more than £1 billion ($2 billion) in total.
NGN previously always rejected any claims of wrongdoing at The Sun, or that any senior figures knew about it or tried to cover it up, as Harry’s lawsuit alleged.
Harry had 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 multimillion-pound legal bill that could be imposed even if they had won in court but had rejected NGN’s offer.
Harry’s main target had been Rebekah Brooks, who was The Sun‘s editor for part of the period when NGN has admitted there was unlawful behaviour and is now chief executive of News UK.
“They now admit, when she was editor of The Sun, they ran a criminal enterprise,” Harry and 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 senior figures, nor to the allegation of cover-ups by current or former executives.
– with AAP
