Prince Harry has pursued legal action for years against Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids, saying he wants to hold them accountable for privacy violations.
Frank Augstein/AP/AP
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Frank Augstein/AP/AP
LONDON — Prince Harry and a top British lawmaker have agreed a deal with Rupert Murdoch’s British publishing arm, fulfilling their quest for a full apology in the years-long fight to hold Murdoch’s tabloids accountable for illegal invasions of privacy and an alleged cover-up of crimes.
Murdoch’s British tabloid division issued a “full and unequivocal apology” to Harry for what it acknowledged were illegal intrusions into his private life from 1996 to 2011, for the pressure it put on his family and for his actions towards his mother, the late Princess Diana. .
It recognizes “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators mandated by them in World News” He further admitted “incidents of illegal activities carried out by private investigators working for The Sun“.
This is the first acknowledgment by Murdoch’s corporate empire of wrongdoing on the part of The Sunwhich extended to seven days when he closed the World News at the height of the phone hacking scandal in 2011. Together, the two British tabloids, which he purchased more than half a century ago, served as an economic launchpad for his global media empire, including his expansion in the United States.
Murdoch’s company also apologized to former MP Tom Watson, a senior Labor leader who is now a member of the House of Lords, for monitoring him from 2009 to 2011, while he was investigating the Murdoch tabloids in Parliament. The company said it was paying “significant damages.”
The settlement was announced Wednesday morning during what were expected to be opening arguments in the trial, which is expected to last at least six weeks.
Lawyers for Harry and Watson told the court this month that the litigants were not seeking financial gain from the case. Harry claimed he was seeking “specifically truth and accountability” last month in an interview with the New York Times.
Harry and Watson intended to give their legal team the opportunity to publicly present newly secured evidence to demonstrate that senior executives had destroyed evidence and lied to police at the height of a phone hacking scandal here ago is over ten years old.
Those at the heart of these allegations include Will Lewis, now CEO and publisher of The Washington Post. He is not charged in the case and has denied any wrongdoing. Because of the settlement, claims against Lewis and the other executives were not tested in court. News UK, the British newspaper of Murdoch’s vast media company, has vigorously denied any destruction of evidence or deception by police.
Harry and Watson rejected earlier settlement proposals, instead saying they needed admissions of wrongdoing to end their claims. In the United Kingdom, damages awarded by courts are generally much lower than in the United States. British law puts pressure on plaintiffs to reach a settlement. They may be forced to pay the defendant’s legal costs if they reject a settlement offer that exceeds the amount of the judgment awarded at trial.
