Prince Harry escaped bloodshed

Although ready to find out with billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s media group, News Group Newspapers (NGN), the prince gave up his trial in exchange for a historic apology and “substantial reparations”.

The announcement had the effect of a bombshell this Wednesday morning before the High Court in London. While a long and painful trial loomed for the exiled prince against the tabloid group NGN, for having illegally spied on him for decades, last minute negotiations led to an agreement. It was Harry’s main lawyer, David Sherborne, who shared the news to everyone’s surprise.

David Sherborne facing the press this Wednesday.Image: www.imago-images.de

Thus, the News Group Newspapers (NGN), owned by 93-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch, presented a historic apology to the Duke of Sussex for “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private detectives. In addition, the publisher undertakes to pay him “substantial reparations”.

Take out the wallet. A “typical” approach of Rupert Murdoch and his newspaperswho have already faced multiple accusations of phone hacking in recent years. More than 1,300 other complaints have been resolved in this way, specifies AP News. But of all the cases filed against the publisher, Harry’s was the closest to a trial. Lack.

A hotly debated settlement

This decision was clearly not easy for the prince, who made his legal crusade against several British tabloid publishers a personal matter. As the hearing was about to begin on Tuesday morning, his lawyer David Sherborne called for an initial one-hour break. Then a second. Followed, a little later in the afternoon, by a third two-hour delay. It then became clear that a settlement was in preparation.

If these repeated postponements did not fail to annoy the judge in charge of the case, Timothy Fancourt, the latter ended up giving in to the pleas of both camps and adjourning the opening of the trial until this Wednesday morning, granting them thus the time needed to negotiate.

The result of the discussions was announced instead of the opening of the trial. In addition to unspecified “substantial interests”, NGN eventually apologized for the phone hacking and the impact of its methods on Harry, his friends and relations, as well as the private life of his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

A real victory for Harry because, if the group had apologized to the victims of the phone hacking of the News of the Worldanother tabloid of the group closed in the wake of the scandal in 2011, it had never yet admitted any of the accusations for The Sun – which makes this admission and apology all the more historic.

Above all, this arrangement spares the prince, exiled in the United States with his family for five years, from taking enormous financial risks – or even “destruction”, in the words of a lawyer in the American media. Pucklast December. Under English law, Harry would in fact have been required to pay both parties’ legal costs – which already amount to several million dollars – in the event of defeat or non-settlement.

As for the NGN group, it is thus spared weeks of damning and potentially very damaging testimony on telephone tapping and other illegal methods used by its journalists to ferret out information. While this trial was intended to determine whether senior officials knew what was happening and whether they hid or even destroyed evidence, these allegations will likely never be verified.

As for the prince’s legal crusade, it is still far from over. A third lawsuit, this time against the publisher of Daily Mailis already planned for next year.