How Prince Harry 'got what he wanted' from a fading newspaper empire
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What does Prince Harry’s settlement with News Group Newspaper over privacy intrusion mean for the UK’s tabloid industry?
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In brief…
- Prince Harry has won a major settlement in proceedings against Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, winning a “whacking great payout”, in the words of Emily Maitlis.
- There have been calls for a second Leveson inquiry, but as there is no ongoing police investigation into News Group Newspapers, this is unlikely.
- The News Agents say that the newspaper industry no longer has the power it once had, when people such as Elon Musk control the media landscape and what we read.
What’s the story?
Prince Harry has won "substantial damages" and a "full and unequivocal apology" from The Sun newspaper in an out-of-court settlement, over serious intrusion into his private life.
The result has been seen as a victory not only for the Royal, but for the memory of his mum, Princess Diana, as well – who was also a victim of press intrusion before her death.
The case related to "serious intrusion" carried out by journalists and investigators working for News Group Newspapers (NGN) between 1996 and 2011, which was then covered up by company bosses.
Harry was between the ages of 12 and 27 at the time, and claimed NGN had published more than 200 articles about him based on information gathered illegally.
Jon Sopel says there’s a very good reason Harry will have taken the out-of-court settlement, despite saying he was prepared to take NGN to trial.
“Prince Harry got what he wanted, and that was the acknowledgement that private detectives had been engaged by The Sun newspaper to spy on him, and illegal activity had taken place,” he says.
This was repeatedly denied by Rebecca Brooks, who was the editor of The Sun at the time.
But Jon adds The Sun will also have been grateful for proceedings ending this way, since it means The Sun won’t have its “dirty laundry aired in public”.
In its apology, NGN apologises for its actions, but stresses that illegal activity around Prince Harry was only carried out by private investigators employed by The Sun, not its journalists.
Emily Maitlis says the big question now is what happens to the people at the top.
Will there be a new Leveson inquiry?
There have been suggestions that the outcome of Prince Harry’s actions could be a second Leveson inquiry. The first was held through 2011 and 2012, investigating the practices of the UK press following the phone hacking scandal. This was focused on The News of The World, also owned by Rupert Murdoch.
There is currently no further investigation into NGN, but the Metropolitan police has said that it “awaits” anyone else coming forward with evidence of phone hacking or similar tactics.
“Somebody has now got to come forward, to open the whole thing up and ask for a police investigation, because they are an injured party, before the police do anything,” says Emily Maitlis.
“Is that going to happen? I can't see it.”
Lewis Goodall says that a second Leveson inquiry is even less likely due to the time that has passed since the first.
“Many of these events were a long time ago – not that that diminishes their illegality,” he says.
Plus, he adds, a second Leveson inquiry, which was meant to investigate the relationship between the press and the police, was vetoed by the previous Tory government, saying that things had moved on and times had changed.
What’s The News Agents’ take?
Prince Harry’s out-of-court settlement has been big news, especially in the UK – apart from in NGN publications.
The Sun ran the story on page six, other Murdoch titles buried it much deeper.
Lewis says the whole situation now feels like something from “another media age”, one where people like Murdoch were still the most powerful and influential men on the planet.
“Yes, these people are still powerful. Yes, Murdoch is still powerful. These institutions are still powerful – but they're nowhere near as powerful as they were then,” he says.
“We’re talking about the high water mark of when they were acting with impunity, and had huge readership, but in the age that we're living in now, when we've got Musk, we've got the misinformation,e've got the arbiters of information sitting around Donald Trump at the inauguration… It almost feels to me, just watching, it feels like this is something from an age gone by.”
We are living, Emily adds, in a new age for friends of Trump.
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