2023-06-06 19:45:00
Prince Harry became the first British royal on Tuesday to testify in court in a century, explaining the “suffering” caused by the articles of a tabloid newspaper which he accuses of illegally collecting information about him.
Dressed in a gray suit and white shirt, the youngest son of Carlos III, 38, began to testify on the bench of the High Court of London, where since May 10, Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).
The Duke of Sussex had not returned to his country since his father’s coronation ceremony on May 6, which he attended without his wife, the American actress. Meghan Markleand after which he immediately returned to the United States where the couple has resided since 2020.
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His statement is the first by a British royal since Edward VII, who also did it as a witness in a defamation trial in 1891, before becoming monarch.
Why did you testify and why is this statement so important? What did he say this Tuesday in court? These are the keys to Prince Harry’s statement.
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What is the case about?
The Duke of Sussex appeared as a witness in London’s High Court in the case against the group Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), accused of having engaged in dubious practices such as the illegal interception of telephones to generate information and sell newspapers.
Harry, two television actors and the ex-wife of a comedian accuse the MGN group, publisher of the newspaper The Mirror and the magazine Sunday People, among numerous publications, of obtaining details about their lives between 1996 and 2011 through illegal methods, including phone hacking.
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At the beginning of the process in May, MGN recognized “some indications” of illegal collection of information about the duke on a single occasion, he apologized and assured that “this conduct will not be repeated”. But MGN’s lawyer, Andrew Green, denied that voicemail messages had been intercepted and argued that some lawsuits were filed too late, decades after the alleged events.
Harry, who shook the British monarchy when he and Meghan announced that they were leaving the institution, has other open lawsuits against the press in his country.
The couple cited unbearable media pressure and racist attacks against the mixed-race actress as among their reasons for leaving the UK.
The Duke of Sussex already appeared by surprise in a London court in March, in another lawsuit filed by several celebrities -including the singer Elton John- against the group Associated Newspapers Ltd, publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper. But in those preliminary hearings he did not testify.
The prince has recently accused other members of the British monarchy of colluding with the press. In court papers filed in April, he claimed that the royal family had reached a “secret agreement” with a publisher to avoid any of its members having to testify in court.
This is also a test case: if Harry and the other plaintiffs win, the judge will use it to set the level of damages (amount of money) that MGN could pay in other celebrity cases.
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle greet people at Windsor Castle.
What did the prince say in court today?
“More than thousands, perhaps millions of articles have been written about me since I was 11 years old,” recalled Prince Harry, despite the fact that in this case the judge only analyzed 33 of them.
In his speech, Harry focused on 33 articles out of the 140 published between 1996 and 2010 by tabloids Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror y The Peoplewhich, according to him, contained information collected using illegal methods.
The prince also denounced “the invasion of the press for most of my life to this day.” “Each one of these articles caused me suffering,” he said, citing information that sometimes goes back more than 20 years and that he admitted not remembering specifically with precision.
“Other people, friends, schoolmates would read the articles and their behavior would change,” he said. And he admitted that this made him feel “paranoia” about his relationships, distrusting anyone who could provide information about him, and reduced his circle of friends.
However, although he found it “hard to believe how (the newspaper) would have achieved (some information) otherwise” than by hacking into his phone messages, Harry was unable to provide evidence for these allegations.
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Our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government, and I believe both are at rock bottom.
From his reaction to his parents’ divorce, to his health problems and drug use, he was questioned one-on-one about the 33 articles by MGN lawyer Andrew Green.. And he had to admit that a lot of this information was also published by other newspapers and he couldn’t directly attribute it to the hacking of his cell phone.
The prince, fifth in line to the throne, also launched an unusual criticism of the ties between the press and the British executive.
“Our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government, and I think both are at rock bottom,” he said. “Democracy fails when the press fails to scrutinize and hold government to account, instead choosing to get into bed with them in order to guarantee the status quo,” he added.
Because it is important?
This statement by Prince Harry is the first by a British royal since Edward VII, who also made it as a witness in a libel trial in 1891, before he became monarch. But, beyond that, what does it represent?
Sean Coughlan, the BBC’s royal correspondent, explains that “Prince Harry is breaking the unspoken taboo of a royal going to the witness stand to face what could be very embarrassing questions”.
For Coughlan, “part of the mystique of the monarchy is saying little and responding less,” and this, he adds, “won’t be possible in an open court, but it’s something Prince Harry clearly feels is worth the risk.” “.
The BBC correspondent also explains that the prince’s grievance with “the excesses of the press is deeply personal and emotional” and that this “is a legal confrontation that could almost be traced directly to the death of his mother Diana, in a car accident in Paris in 1997, when the paparazzi were chasing her”.
“Repeatedly, (Harry) has linked that moment to his battle with the tabloid press,” says the expert.
Harry ‘grows in confidence’
The prince, who currently resides in the United States with his wife and two young children, said the aired stories – gleaned from illegal wiretapping – not only caused security problems but also damaged personal relationships.
“I would say that the actions (of these media) affected all areas of my life, generating a lot of paranoia in my relationships because I distrusted everyone whose name appeared in the article, they were (the former employee of the Royal House stables) Mark Dyer, (her former nanny) Tiggy or her brother, for example,” he said.
He also regrets that “I felt like I couldn’t trust anyone, which is a horrible feeling especially when you’re so young” and points out that he had always heard people refer to his mother, the late Lady Di, as “paranoid” but that “It wasn’t, I was afraid of what was happening to him and now I know that the same thing was happening to me”.
In relation to Diana, he acknowledged that having found out that more than 8 payments were made to private investigators about her, they make him feel “physically ill.”
But the Mirror group’s lawyer, Andrew Green, disputed some of Harry’s evidence, saying a 1996 story could not be gleaned from the messages, as he only received a mobile phone in 1998. Green also said many of the Mirror group’s stories were already in the public domain, having been published by other newspapers.
Following the testimony, Sean Coughlan, the BBC’s royal correspondent, “Prince Harry seems to be gaining confidence, after a rather nervous start, while the Mirror’s lawyer, Andrew Green, is becoming increasingly direct in his challenges”.
WILLIAM MORENO HERNANDEZ
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
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