Prince Harry receives an apology from Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers in settlement deal

Prince Harry won a “massive” victory over Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group on Wednesday after the publisher settled its lawsuit, admitted illegal actions at its Sun newspaper for the first time and paid unspecified damages.

Harry, 40, the youngest son of King Charles, was suing the publisher of the Sun and the long-defunct News of the World newspaper in the High Court in London, alleging News Group Newspapers (NGN) illegally obtained private information about him. From 1996 until 1996. 2011.

The News Group offered a “full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex” for “phone hacking, surveillance and the misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators who were instructed by them,” according to a statement read in court by Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne. .

Sherborne said a deal had been struck with NGN agreeing to pay significant compensation and that NGN had admitted that Harry had been the victim of illegal activity by The Sun and had suffered a phone hack at the hands of the News of the World.

“It is time for accountability,” Sherborne said, calling on British police and the UK government to open investigations, alleging that NGN executives helped purge 30 million emails over the years, hindering the civil case.

The lawyer, who said the claimants intended to provide police with a “dossier exposing wrongdoing”, also took aim at Rebekah Brooks, who was editor-in-chief of The Sun newspaper between 2003 and 2009.

Brooks resigned from the parent company now known as News Corp UK shortly before her arrest in July 2011 on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept communications and other charges. She was acquitted in a 2014 trial, and rejoined News Corp UK the following year.

“At her trial in 2014, Rebecca Brooks said: ‘When I was editor of The Sun, we ran a clean ship,'” Sherborne said. “Now, 10 years later, when she became CEO of the company, they now admit, when she was editor of The Sun, that they were running a criminal enterprise.”

Apologies to Harry in full

The News Group’s apology said: “NGN extends a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion carried out by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 in his private life, including incidents of illegal activity by private investigators working for The Sun.” .

“NGN also extends a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by the News of the World.

“NGN also apologizes to the Duke for the impact of the extensive coverage and serious interference in his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, particularly during his younger years.

“We acknowledge and apologize for the suffering the Duke has suffered, and the damage to relationships, friendships and family, and have agreed to pay him significant compensation.”

The news group says that harmful actions are a thing of the past

Harry has long criticized British tabloids for their reporting and paparazzi, and has sued a number of British newspaper outlets.

He first filed the lawsuit against NGN in 2019, and an eight-week trial to decide the hotly contested lawsuit was supposed to begin Tuesday.

Harry – who became the first senior royal to appear as a witness in court in 130 years in a separate trial in 2023 – was due to give evidence next month.

Harry is believed to be currently in California, where he currently resides.

Harry admitted in a British documentary that the Crusade was “part of a dispute” with members of the royal family.

Harry said in the legal filings that King Charles opposed the lawsuit.

NGN has paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone hacking and other illegal information collected by the News of the World, and has settled more than 1,300 lawsuits involving well-known celebrities, politicians, sports figures and ordinary people who were connected to them or major events.

But she has always rejected any allegations of wrongdoing at the Sun, or that any senior figures knew about it or tried to cover it up, as Harry’s lawsuit alleges.

In a statement, an NGN spokesperson said its apology was for illegal actions committed by private investigators working for The Sun, not its journalists.

“There are robust controls and processes in place at all our addresses today to ensure this does not happen now. There was no voicemail interception at The Sun,” the spokesman said, adding that the settlement represented the likely end of any litigation, and that future cases were subject to dismissal.

sian harrison, Author and media law expert based in LondonHe told CBC News that Harry received a “significant” concession from the Sun, but that the newspaper and its executives would be happy to avoid airing the damaging allegations in court.

While the prince promised to pursue the lawsuit all the way to the courtroom, Harrison said that in her view, the fact that British civil law imposes heavy legal costs on those who lose lawsuits was undoubtedly a factor.

Harrison added that despite Sherburne’s comments outside of court, it was “extremely unlikely” that more criminal charges would be filed after all these years.

The British lawmaker also receives an apology

Labour’s Tom Watson, who serves in the House of Lords, was due to be part of the trial for similar allegations as the Duke of Sussex. Watson also received an apology from Murdoch’s company on Wednesday.

NGN made a “full and unequivocal apology to Lord Watson for the unwarranted intrusion into his private life during his time in government by the News of the World during 2009-2011”.

In their joint statement, Harry and Watson said NGN has now paid out more than £1 billion (C$1.77 billion) over the years.

In his comments outside court, Watson praised Harry’s “incredible courage and bravery” in pursuing the matter “under extraordinary pressure.”

The lawmaker called on Rupert Murdoch to make a personal apology to Harry and others whose privacy was violated by organizations in his media empire.

Hugh Grant last year settled with NGN over allegations that journalists used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his home. The actor expressed reluctance to do so, but said the legal costs could be prohibitive, and that he would donate the proceeds of the settlement he won to lobby advocacy groups.

The News of the World has folded after 168 years in business in the wake of a phone hacking scandal.

At a British parliamentary hearing in 2011, Murdoch expressed regret over what happened in his UK papers, but insisted he bore no personal responsibility.

“The people I trusted to run it, and probably the people I trusted, did it,” he said.

Murdoch’s companies own a large number of other news organizations around the world including Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in the United States, The Times of London in the United Kingdom and several companies in his home country, Australia.

Harry previously received compensation of 140,600 pounds sterling (about 240,430 Canadian dollars) after the High Court in London ruled that he was the victim of a “modest” phone hacking operation and other illegal information carried out by journalists at the newspapers of the British Mirror Group (MGN).

Harry had sued MGN, the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People.

But the Duke of Sussex was ordered to pay the Daily Mail’s legal costs in another failed legal bid, and has since abandoned the case.