Prince Harry will face the Murdoch publications in court

The High Court in London formally opened Prince Harry’s case against Rupert Murdoch’s British media business on Tuesday. King Charles’ youngest son is scheduled to testify as a witness during the trial next month.

Harry is suing News Group Newspapers for allegedly engaging in illegal activity from 1996 to 2011 while journalists and private detectives worked for the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World.

After about 40 other claimants, including actor Hugh Grant, settled their suits to avoid the possibility of a multi-million-pound legal fee that might be imposed even if they won in court but had turned down NGN’s offer, Harry has stated that he wants to know the truth.

“They have settled because they’ve had to settle,” he said last month at the New York Times Dealbook Summit. “One of the main reasons for seeing this through is accountability because I’m the last person that can actually achieve that.”

The NGN case is the most recent legal action in Harry’s spat with the British press, which started soon after he married Meghan, an American, in 2018.

The prince claims that the tabloids’ intrusion, harassment, and encouragement of hatred were major factors in Harry and Meghan’s decision to leave their royal responsibilities in March 2020 and go to California, where they currently reside with their two children.

After he utilized documentaries, his memoir, and interviews to attack editors and top executives, critics claim he is pursuing revenge on newspapers for their coverage of him and his scathing remarks about other royal family members.

First, “generic issues” such phone hacking and illegal information collecting at the newspaper, whether senior NGN leaders were aware of it, and if damning material had been purposefully deleted would be examined throughout the eight-week trial.

It will also look into claims that NGN gave incorrect information to a public investigation into media ethics that took place between 2011 and 2012 and misled police.

Following that, specific evidence pertaining to Harry and another claimant, former Labour Party deputy leader Tom Watson, will be examined. The prince is anticipated to testify for at least two days, and former prime minister Gordon Brown is also anticipated to testify.

“His claim will be fully defended, including on the grounds that it is brought out of time,” an NGN representative stated in reference to Harry’s complaint.
The spokeswoman claimed that the claim that emails had been illegally deleted was “wrong, unsustainable, and is strongly denied” and that Watson had never been the victim of hacking.

Hacking of phones

The fifth-in-line to the throne has previously won significant damages in a lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers for illegally violating his privacy by hacking his phone’s voicemails and other records.

In that case, he testified for two days in June 2023, making him the first senior British monarch to appear in court in 130 years.

For Murdoch’s newspaper organization, the stakes could be higher. It apologized unequivocally in 2011 for the massive phone hacking that was done by News of the World journalists, which Murdoch shut down.

Since then, NGN has resolved claims against over 1,300 people and distributed hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone hacking and other illegal information collecting by the News of the World.

The next trial, however, will be the first to look at specific accusations against the Sun, which was formerly edited by Rebekah Brooks, who is currently in charge of News Corp’s (NWSA.O) new tab British unit. It has always denied any illegal behavior at the Sun.

NGN’s attorneys have accused Harry’s legal team and others of attempting to convert the lawsuit into a rerun of previous lawsuits and the public inquiry after she was found not guilty of phone hacking in 2014 after a criminal trial.

Harry was previously barred by the judge from making accusations against Murdoch directly. Other current and former NGN employees will be there, although Brooks will not be testifying.