Prince Harry’s settlement with Murdoch tabloids isn’t end of story

Prince Harry has won a “monumental” victory against Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids and has achieved at least some of the accountability sought in his sustained legal action against News Group Newspapers (NGN). He’s also received “substantial damages” and an apology, alongside his co-claimant Lord Tom Watson, as predicted yesterday.

However, News has also managed to escape from the trial with some key wins, helping to preserve its carefully constructed response to years of allegations over its phone-hacking.

The other revelation from yesterday’s London High Court drama is this may not be the end of the matter, despite NGN’s hopes otherwise. It’s clear the people backing Prince Harry see this as an important step in pursuing criminal charges against NGN executives, as well as a personal apology from Rupert Murdoch himself.  

When the court convened yesterday morning, Prince Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne announced a settlement had been reached with NGN. He then read that statement to the court, as he did later to the huge contingent of media waiting outside.

What it doesn’t say is perhaps even more revealing than what it concedes.

NGN offers a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion by the Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life, including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for the Sun.

This is a significant admission that the Sun engaged in unlawful activity. But it is not quite full, nor is it unequivocal. Note that it doesn’t say journalists and editors at the Sun acted illegally. Instead, it was private investigators who broke the law. And “incidents of unlawful activity” should probably be replaced with “sustained industrial-scale and highly organised criminality”, but I guess the lawyers were practising journalistic brevity.

Harry’s lawyer pointed out in his post-settlement statement that “NGN unlawfully engaged more than 100 private investigators over at least 16 years on more than 35,000 occasions”. He said, “This happened as much at the Sun as it did at the News of the World with the knowledge of all the editors and executives, going to the very top of the company.”

NGN’s statement is decidedly not an admission that the Sun committed phone-hacking, but is a sort of begrudging one that it benefitted from it. This is the absurd dance the Sun has been engaged in since NGN was first exposed for its intrusive behaviour way back in 2006. It’s more like implausible deniability. Everyone knows it hacked phones, especially the hundreds of people who’ve received payments because their phones were hacked. But NGN still feels it has to maintain this charade because to do otherwise is an admission it has perjured itself in courts and before inquiries.

NGN also offers a full and unequivocal apology to the duke of Sussex for the phone-hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World.

NGN can hardly deny that journalists at its defunct News of the World were hacking phones because a bunch of them went to prison for it, namely Andy Coulson, Neville Thurlbeck and Greg Miskiw, while others received suspended sentences. News of the World was thrown to the wolves back in 2011 and NGN would like us to believe the problem of miscreant reporters was contained to that paper alone.

It is of course completely unbelievable. 

NGN further apologises to the duke for the impact on him of the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, in particular during his younger years. We acknowledge and apologise for the distress caused to the duke, and the damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family, and have agreed to pay him substantial damages.

This is personal. Harry wanted, and got, acknowledgement that his mother suffered at NGN’s hands, but also that his wife and wider family, as well as his personal friends and former girlfriends, have all suffered terribly as a result of NGN’s disgraceful behaviour.  

It is also acknowledged, without any admission of illegality, that NGN’s response to the 2006 arrests and subsequent actions were regrettable.

“Regrettable” is the word spin doctors and reputation managers use when they really mean “we can’t bring ourselves to say sorry”. This is a reference to NGN’s continual denial it had a company-wide problem, even when a News of the World royal correspondent was arrested in 2006. Back then NGN tried to argue it was just one or two rotten reporters, while knowing full well it had a much bigger problem on its hands.

Now the company is admitting — well, sort of — that it was all a ruse. But the lack of an admission of illegality is evidence that it still isn’t prepared to come clean.  

Harry’s lawyer put it like this: “There was an extensive conspiracy to cover up what really had been going on and who knew about it. Senior executives deliberately obstructed justice by deleting over 30 million emails, destroying back-up tapes, and making false denials — all in the face of an ongoing police investigation. They then repeatedly lied under oath to cover their tracks — both in court and at the Leveson public inquiry.”

NGN also offers a full and unequivocal apology to Lord Watson for the unwarranted intrusion carried out into his private life during his time in government by the News of the World during the period 2009-2011.

The apology to Watson was extensive and suggested NGN targeted him because as a politician he sought the truth and accountability from NGN. But as Watson said in his statement, that’s not really enough to right those wrongs. Like Harry, and presumably many others who’ve now settled, he wants the matter pursued in the criminal courts so News executives are held to account. He said “a dossier exposing wrongdoing” will now be passed to the Met Police.  

And these are big questions arising from yesterday. Will the police and Britain’s Labour government build on NGN’s partial admissions and apologies? Will they investigate News executives, therefore fulfilling what was meant to occur in the second stage of the Leveson inquiry before that stage was cancelled by the former Conservative government? Or will they take the view that this historic settlement means justice has now been served and hope, like Murdoch and many of his senior executives, that this will now just quietly die?

As for a personal apology from Rupert for the years of harm done to so many people? Don’t count on that anytime soon.

Have something to say about this article? Write to us at letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.