New round in Prince Harry’s fight against the tabloids: a trial opens Tuesday in London, targeting two publications by Rupert Murdoch accused by the youngest son of King Charles III of having obtained information about his private life illegally.
Harry, who lives in California with his wife Meghan and their two children, will be called to give evidence during the trial at the High Court in London which is expected to last up to ten weeks. The civil lawsuits target the group of tycoon Rupert Murdoch, News Group Newspapers (NGN).
A victory in 2023
Two tabloids, the Sun and the deceased News of the Worldare accused by Harry of having used, in particular through private detectives, illegal processes to collect information intended to feed articles concerning him more than a decade ago.
The Duke of Sussex, who has withdrawn from the monarchy, won a major victory in 2023 against the tabloid press by obtaining the conviction of the publisher of the Daily Mirror for articles resulting from telephone messaging hacking. The proceedings before the High Court in London do not relate to telephone tapping, Judge Timothy Fancourt having ruled that the deadline for acting on this point had passed.
“Be accountable”
In addition to Harry, a former Labor Party leader, Tom Watson, now a member of the House of Lords, is also suing the NGN group. Hundreds of other victims preferred to opt for amicable agreements with the media group.
Harry said at an event organized by the New York Times in December, that he intended to make the tabloids “accountable,” against whom he is waging a determined legal fight. The two plaintiffs also accuse NGN managers of having covered up the illegal actions of their employees by deleting emails. NGN rejects these accusations, describing them as “false” and “unsubstantiated”. During this trial, the group will call “a number of witnesses, including technology experts, lawyers and senior officials (of the company) to refute the complaint,” said a spokesperson.
-“A very widespread practice”
Harry, who withdrew from the royal family in 2020 and moved to the United States with Meghan, holds the paparazzi responsible for the death of his mother Diana in 1997 in Paris. In 2023, he testified against the publisher of the Daily Mirror (MGN), becoming the first member of the royal family to give evidence in court in over a hundred years.
The judge, who was also Timothy Fancourt, ruled in his favor. He estimated that hacking celebrity voicemail boxes was “a very widespread practice” among MGN group titles at the end of the 1990s. He also specified that Prince Harry’s cell phone messaging had been hacked “in a modest measure. The British press was shaken at the end of the 2000s by the revelation of several illegal wiretapping scandals.
Battle “between two stubborn armies
Rupert Murdoch’s group had apologized, acknowledging illegal practices at the News of the World, which it had hastily closed in 2011, but denied the existence of similar actions at the Sun and denied any attempt to cover up the scandal.
Since then, some 1,300 plaintiffs have reached out-of-court settlements with the media group. According to the British media, the latter paid around one billion pounds (1.18 billion euros), avoiding any trial until now. Harry’s older brother and heir to the throne, Prince William, is among those who have opted for such deals in recent years, as is actor Hugh Grant. The latter explained that a trial would have cost him ten million pounds (11.8 million euros) in legal costs, even in the event of victory.
Harry’s legal proceedings against Rupert Murdoch’s group were compared in October by Judge Fancourt to a battle “between two stubborn but well-resourced armies”.
In his 2023 autobiography, “The Substitute,” Harry called Rupert Murdoch “evil.”
