Two things are true at once: Prince Harry scored an unqualified, bombshell victory in his case against NGN, and it’s a damn shame that the whole mess won’t go to trial. The trial had the potential to be what amounted to a second Leveson Inquiry. The Leveson Inquiry was the huge public hearing back in 2010 and 2011, where some-but-not-all of the British media’s criminal activities were exposed. Post-Leveson, a lot of people sued various outlets and got a lot of settlements. What also happened post-Leveson is that there were no real consequences for the press beyond the financial hits. In fact, some laws were changed to make it more difficult for people to sue. The criminal investigations into the newspapers died on the vine as well. For years, people have wanted “Leveson 2,” a long-awaited second public inquiry which would hopefully do more to fix these festering problems. Well, Downing Street says it won’t happen.
The Government has said it will not launch a fresh inquiry into wrongdoing by the press – despite an admission from the publishers of The Sun that private investigators working for the newspaper “undertook illegal activity” between 1996 and 2011 while probing Prince Harry’s private life.
At the thirteenth hour, the landmark trial of The Sun owner, News Group Newspapers, has been settled through an agreement with Labour peer Lord Tom Watson and the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry. The settlement avoids an explosive trial over allegations of phone-hacking, illegal activity, and a cover-up at The Sun and the now shuttered News of the World. But, as part of the agreement, and after years of denials, The Sun has – for the first time – admitted that investigators working for it were engaged in unlawful activity.
In a joint statement on what it described as the “monumental victory”, Prince Harry and Lord Watson called for a new police and parliamentary investigation following the admission.
“The rule of law must now run its full course,” it stated. “Prince Harry and Tom Watson join others in calling for the police and Parliament to investigate not only the unlawful activity now finally admitted, but the perjury and cover ups along the way.”
“It’s clear now this has occurred throughout this process, including through sworn evidence in inquiries and court hearings, and in testimony to Parliament, until today’s final collapse of NGN’s defence,” it added. “Today, the lies are laid bare. Today, the cover-ups are exposed. And today proves that no one stands above the law. The time for accountability has arrived.”
However, when asked by Byline Times about the new admission from News UK following the settlement, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman appeared to reject the Prince Harry and Lord Watson’s call for a new inquiry into press illegality.
“Obviously, there’s a settlement which I can’t comment on,” the spokesman said in a lobby briefing. “More broadly, newspapers play a vital role in a functioning democracy. Clearly, they must operate within the bounds of the law and certain codes. You’ve got the Government’s plans as set out in the manifesto [on] not going ahead with a new inquiry.”
This is the political reality, unfortunately. The British press insists that Keir Starmer is deeply unpopular, therefore Starmer doesn’t have the political capital to take on the press, therefore no Leveson 2. To hear the royal reporters, you’d think that Prince Harry was supposed to swoop in and completely fix this system. What Harry was actually going to do was expose the rot at the heart of multiple British institutions, which is exactly why the Murdochs went so far to settle with him and admit SOME of the criminal sh-t they were up to.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
