2023-12-16 05:01:00
The British High Court ruled this Friday that Prince Harry of England was the victim of hacking of his mobile phone by the publishing group Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), owner of the Daily Mirror newspaper, and ordered to pay him compensation for damages.
Justice ruled in favor of the Duke of Sussex in 15 of the 33 newspaper articles that he had said were prepared from information obtained through illegal means between 2003 and 2009. Although it was a partial victory, since he was given The reason for less than half of the grades, the prince must receive compensation of about $179,000, as established by Judge Timothy Fancourt. “While the compensation is modest, it reflects the harm experienced by the prince from the Mirror’s actions,” he said.
The verdict
Harry – who lives in the United States with his wife Meghan and their two children – had initiated legal proceedings against MGN, which publishes the Sunday Mirror, Daily Mirror and Sunday People newspapers. He accused the group of having used dubious practices such as tapping phones in order to obtain information and sell newspapers.
“I noted that 15 of the 33 items judged were the product of hacking of his mobile phone or the mobile phones of his associates, or the product of other illegal information collection. I believe that his phone was hacked only in a modest way and that perhaps was carefully controlled by certain people in each newspaper,” the judge said when reading the ruling. “However, it happened on occasions from late 2003 to April 2009. In his testimony, the duke tended to assume that everything published was a product of voicemail hacking because phone hacking was widespread in the Mirror group in that moment,” he added.
On the other hand, the judge concluded that television presenter Piers Morgan was aware of the phone hacking when he was editor of the Daily Mirror. And he said two directors of the media group, Paul Vickers and Sly Bailey, were also aware of the phone-hacking practices but chose not to inform the company’s board of directors. “He hid it from the board, from Parliament, from the public and from the Leveson inquiry report,” declared the judge, referring to Judge Brian Leveson, who in 2012 published a report on the practices of the British press following of the illegal eavesdropping scandal of Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World.
“A great day for the truth”
After the ruling was announced, at the door of the court, lawyer David Sherbourne read a statement from the prince, absent from court. “Today is a great day for truth and accountability,” he said. “The legal measure was based on the need to have a free and honest press, and one that is duly responsible when necessary,” added the duke, who admitted that the path to Justice can be slow and painful.
The duke had given evidence in court last June, the first time in more than a hundred years that a member of the royal family had done so in court. At his appearance, the prince admitted that the tabloids’ actions to obtain exclusives generated paranoia and mistrust in him, while having an impact on his life, from security to relationships. He in turn accused them of having incited hatred and harassment in his private life in a written document.
MGN and Morgan after the ruling
“We welcome today’s ruling, giving the company the clarity needed to move forward on events that took place many years ago. Where historical irregularities occurred, we apologized unreservedly, took full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation.” , mentioned an MGN spokesperson.
Piers Morgan attacked the prince, saying that he does not even know how to recognize the truth and denied that he personally tapped or authorized the hacking of his cell phone at that time. “Harry demands responsibility from the press, but refuses to accept any for defaming the royal family, his own family, as if they were a group of insensitive racists, without presenting any evidence to support these shameful claims,” he reproached him. “He also says he is on a mission to reform the media, but it has become clear that his real mission, along with that of his wife, is to destroy the British monarchy, and I will continue to do everything I can to stop them,” he added.
Morgan, currently a presenter on TalkTV, regretted that neither the lawyers of the various victims in this case nor the MGN defense called him to testify during the process to defend himself. “I never hacked a phone nor did I ask anyone to do it and no one provided any real evidence to show that I did,” he told local media and insisted that the testimonies against him heard during the process were from old enemies with grievances.
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