LONDON, Jan 19 — Prince Harry is due at the High Court in London today when a trial is due to begin on his privacy lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail, one of the most high-profile cases to be held in Britain for years.
The British royal, 41, along with six others including veteran pop star Elton John, 78, are suing Associated Newspapers for unlawful behaviour, ranging from hacking voicemail messages on their mobile phones to obtaining personal information such as financial or medical records by deception.
Associated, which also publishes the Mail on Sunday, has rejected all the allegations, calling them preposterous smears, and argues they are part of a coordinated conspiracy against the press.
Harry’s mission to take on press
In a trial expected to last nine weeks, lawyers for Harry, John and the other claimants — John’s husband David Furnish, actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence and former lawmaker Simon Hughes — will argue that Mail stories were based on material illicitly obtained by private investigators.
Both sides are likely to make allegations of dishonesty about the other. Not just reputations, but also legal costs running to tens of millions of US dollars ride on the outcome.
“This case asks whether Britain’s most influential publisher truly sailed through the phone-hacking era without touching the water — or whether it simply avoided the spotlight,” media lawyer Mark Stephens said.
“For the first time, the court will examine the evidence, the patterns, and the sourcing that have never before been tested.”
Prince due to give evidence
For Harry, it is the final instalment of his legal war on the British tabloids, having said it was his mission to clean up the press and hold those in senior positions to account.
He has already successfully sued Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages, and he previously won an apology and admission of some wrongdoing from Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper arm which settled ahead of a trial a year ago.
The prince, who has long blamed the press for the death of his mother Princess Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997 as her vehicle sped away from photographers, is due to give evidence on Thursday, having in 2023 become the first British royal to appear in a witness box in 130 years during the MGN trial.
Associated, whose titles have not hitherto been embroiled in the phone-hacking scandal which has hung over the British press for two decades, has denied its journalists were involved in any wrongdoing.
Judge says trial to focus on specific stories
The publisher says evidence from former private detectives, some of whom have been convicted of crimes and have been paid for their testimonies, was untrustworthy.
It has also argued that the claimants, some of their rich supporters and members of a research team working for their lawyers were trying to reopen a public inquiry into press standards which was held almost 15 years ago after phone-hacking revelations caused public outrage.
The judge, Matthew Nicklin, has said the trial will only focus on specific articles and whether they were based on information which was gathered unlawfully. — Reuters
