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For the publishers of the Sun, “sorry” is not the hardest word, but it is an expensive one. Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers has issued “a full and unequivocal apology” to Prince Harry for “serious intrusions” into his private life, including “unlawful activities”. For the first time it acknowledged that these were carried out by people working for the Sun – albeit private investigators rather than its journalists – as well as saying sorry for phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by those working for the News of the World, which closed owing to the scandal.
Substantial damages are being paid to the prince, adding to the Murdoch empire’s total bill for settlement of around 1,300 cases, which is thought to have exceeded £1bn. Prince Harry has also previously won damages from Mirror Group newspapers.
Money is not the point for victims of phone hacking. Prince Harry won a welcome admission of wrongdoing. But, though he described the settlement as a vindication in the statement read by his lawyer, it spares senior executives – many of whom still hold powerful positions in the industry – the obligation to explain themselves before a judge.
Many of those who settled earlier would rather have gone all the way to trial. They were deterred by the financial burden and the risk of ruinous legal costs. That painful calculation was spelled out by Hugh Grant, the actor and campaigner for press regulation, when he settled his own case last year. A claimant who refuses a settlement can be liable to pay the other side’s costs, even in victory, if the damages awarded are lower than the sum previously offered. Mr Grant said he could have faced a bill of more than £10m. The prince had described himself as the last person who could ensure accountability – positioning himself as an unlikely champion of ordinary people against media might. Some may well feel that, by avoiding a trial, the latter won.
Most victims of unlawful press intrusion were not Hollywood stars and scions of monarchy. Anyone with any connection to a celebrity – friends, family, ex-partners – might have been targeted for hacking. These were not victimless crimes. People were made anxious and paranoid. Relationships were destroyed.
While high-profile cases tend to involve famous names, it is worth recalling the Guardian story that turned hacking into a national scandal: Mr Murdoch’s News of the World intercepting messages on a phone belonging to Millie Dowler, a schoolgirl who was murdered in March 2002. The subsequent outrage led to police investigations, dozens of arrests, a handful of convictions and a public inquiry led by Sir Brian Leveson. Press regulation was reformed post-Leveson, although not exactly as the report recommended. The process raised public awareness of how endemic shabby practices had become in some Fleet Street newsrooms. The industry’s reputation is still suffering.
While Wednesday’s deal ends a long legal battle, the prince and his co-claimant, Tom Watson, who also received an apology, have called for the police and parliament to investigate. Lord Watson, the former Labour party deputy chair, says he has sent a dossier to the Metropolitan police. And while the media landscape has been thoroughly transformed since the start of the saga, the scandal’s ethical core – the pattern of irresponsibility in vast media (or, indeed, technology) organisations and the sense of impunity they enjoy as a function of wealth and power – is surely more relevant than ever.
