Prince Harry takes on Rupert Murdoch's media group in his High Court war with the tabloid press
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Prince Harry’s war with the British tabloids has reached its most important moment yet – a High Court showdown with Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group. The Duke of Sussex says journalists and investigators for both the News of the World and The Sun invaded his privacy for more than 15 years, and he is determined to prove it in court.
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Tuesday marks the start of the ten-week trial in front of Mr Justice Fancourt, with Harry hoping for a dramatic vindication of his long-running campaign against News Group Newspapers (NGN). The News of the World was shutdown at the height of the phone hacking in July 2011, when Murdoch’s company was called News International and it was rocked by revelations of widescale law-breaking in the newsroom.
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In the years that followed, NGN has settled civil claims brought by around 1,300 people who said they had fallen to the so-called media “dark arts”. Settlements and legal costs are thought to have topped £1 billion and there have been acceptance of wrongdoing within the News of the World.
But throughout, NGN has denied the same kind of behaviour was going on at The Sun, and it has vigorously fought against claims of a cover-up in the executive level of the organisation. Harry is risking a multi-million pound loss by taking this case all the way to a full trial, and this is an outcome he is likely to face whether he wins or loses.
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Under the civil rules in the UK, if a claimant rejects an out-of-court settlement that is greater than the sum they eventually win in damages at trial, they are liable for the whole legal cost of the court fight, including the lawyers’ bills of their opponent.
