new York
CNN
—
Rupert Murdoch’s media empire just did something incredibly unusual: it apologized.
The conservative media mogul’s British newspaper division, known as News Group Newspapers (NGN), has issued “a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the Sun’s serious intrusion between 1996 and 2011 into his private life , including incidents of illegal activities.” carried out by private investigators working for The Sun.
And that was just the first sentence. The apology to Prince Harry and former Labor lawmaker Tom Watson continued for four more paragraphs.
The rare public apology was a key part of a settlement agreement announced Wednesday in a last-minute agreement aimed at avoiding a high-stakes trial. Prince Harry, who spent five years searching for Murdoch’s papers, said it was “vindication for the hundreds of other claimants who were forced to settle, unable to discover the truth about what was done to them.
The move was particularly striking because it came at the behest of Murdoch, the cantankerous tycoon who has wielded his papers like weapons for decades. Murdoch isn’t exactly a man known for apologizing. His pugnacious media brands tend to resist any whiff of weakness or wrongdoing. When Murdoch’s Fox News Channel was sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems for lies about the 2020 US election, Fox accepted a whopping $787.5 million, but didn’t say sorry.
In this case, a public apology on Fox was never a top priority for Dominion’s lawyers. They thought it wouldn’t seem authentic anyway. “I don’t think a forced apology is worth a dime,” co-lead counsel Stephen Shackelford later remarked.
Wednesday’s U.K. settlement was similar to the Dominion case in one respect: It allowed Murdoch to avoid the embarrassing spectacle of a trial. But Murdoch’s tabloids were nonetheless held accountable, as the apology included a detailed admission of wrongdoing.
This was, in essence, what Prince Harry said he wanted: “truth and accountability” for the phone hacking scandal that shocked the United Kingdom more than a decade ago.
The wide-ranging scandal centered on private investigators who illegally hacked into the voicemails of news stories and collected information for Murdoch’s tabloids.
The company issued a general apology in 2012, when Murdoch was brought before a British parliamentary committee. In a full-page announcement titled “We are sorry” and published in all UK national newspapers, Murdoch said: “We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that has taken place” and “deeply sorry for the harm suffered by the people concerned”.
He repeated his apology on camera during his testimony.
In the years since, Murdoch-owned media companies have paid more than $1 billion to plaintiffs for what they called “voicemail interception.” But those settlements did not include specific admissions of wrongdoing.
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Prince Harry rejected NGN’s previous settlement proposals and insisted on a trial that would allow new evidence to be presented in public.
A lawyer speaking on behalf of the plaintiffs called the settlement — with its admissions of wrongdoing — a “monumental victory.”
The media group said it was paying Prince Harry and Watson “substantial damages”. But the public apology could be invaluable.
According to the Washington Post, Prince Harry texted his brother Prince William in 2019 about continuing the trial, writing: “Obviously my goal is to expose all their lies and manipulations to the public, to get a public apology for all of us and get some. justice.”
As a result, Wednesday’s apology note went into detail.
He was referring in particular to The Sun newspaper, not just the News of the World, a tabloid that the Murdochs closed in 2011 amid public outcry over phone hacking. (NGN stressed that it was “private investigators working for The Sun”, not the newspaper’s journalists, who carried out “illegal activities”.)
As for the News of the World, the press group apologized to Prince Harry “for phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information” by journalists and private investigators.
And he acknowledged the damage done to the royal family.
“NGN further apologizes to the Duke for the impact on him of the extensive media coverage and the serious intrusion into his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, particularly during of his younger years,” the company said. said. “We acknowledge and apologize for the distress caused to the Duke and the damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family.”