The court has ruled that Prince Harry was a target of phone hacking by British tabloids.
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The High Court in Britain has declared that Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, was the target of media attention.phone hacking
MGN, the publisher of the Daily Mirror tabloid, has been ordered by a court to pay £140,600 (equivalent to approximately $180,000) in damages on Friday.
Justice Timothy Fancourt, the presiding judge at Britain’s High Court, stated that he has granted Harry a “modest” amount in light of the fact that the Mirror Group had a minimal role in the suffering he endured. The group was not accountable for all the illegal actions aimed at Harry and a significant portion of the press’s oppressive behavior towards him was not against the law.
The judge stated that out of the 33 articles examined in the case, only 15 were the result of phone hacking or other unlawful means of obtaining information.
Fancourt stated that the extent of his phone being hacked was minimal and likely orchestrated by specific individuals at each newspaper. During the trial, the Duke seemed to assume that all published content was obtained through voicemail interception due to widespread phone hacking within Mirror Group during that time. However, it’s important to note that phone hacking was not the sole method used by journalists at the time, and upon further examination, his claims regarding the other 18 articles were not substantiated.
The cross-examination of Prince Harry concludes in the trial against a British tabloid at 04:45.
A representative for Mirror Group Newspapers expressed their approval of the recent ruling, which provides the company with the necessary direction to progress beyond past occurrences from several years ago.
“We offer our sincerest apologies for any past wrongdoings, take full accountability, and have provided proper compensation,” the statement stated.
In June, Prince Harry made history as the highest-ranking member of the royal family to testify in a U.K. court case, sharing his testimony over the course of two days.
Harry, along with other celebrities from the United Kingdom, filed a lawsuit against MGN for purportedly engaging in phone hacking.
The Mirror Group refuted any illegal collection of information in regards to the 207 newspaper articles mentioned in the lawsuit, though it had previously acknowledged that phone hacking had occurred at its newspapers.
Since 2019, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have taken legal action against a total of seven media outlets in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Currently, Prince Harry is involved in four separate lawsuits against U.K. tabloids.
He is also a member of a group claiming illegal collection of information at Associated Newspapers Limited, the publisher of The Daily Mail, and News Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Sun tabloid.
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Source: cbsnews.com