Prince Harry: Trial begins in London against the Sun – that’s what it’s about

The hearing in Prince Harry’s civil lawsuit against the publisher of the British tabloid “The Sun” begins today. The son of King Charles III. is expected to be on the witness stand during the trial, which is scheduled to last ten weeks.

Prince Harry and his co-plaintiff, ex-Labour politician Tom Watson, accuse the Sun journalists of spying on them, including by listening to voice messages. Other shady research methods are also being discussed, such as the use of private detectives. They want to prove this with articles that, in their opinion, would not have been possible without such resources.

US media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s publisher NGN (News Group Newspapers) insists that there were no such practices at the Sun. There is said to have been no knowledge of illegal actions in the executive suites.

The alleged crimes at the “Sun” go back to the 1990s. It is undisputed that illegal methods such as listening to voice messages were widespread in some British newspapers during the period in question.

In 2011, the wiretapping scandal reached its peak. The weekly newspaper “News of the World”, which belongs to NGN, was discontinued as a result. The publisher apologized. According to the BBC, the scandal cost the media company more than £1 billion (currently around €1.18 billion) in compensation and legal costs.

Prince Harry is taking a major financial risk with the process, which, among other things, prevented actor Hugh Grant from further participating in the former class action lawsuit.

If a plaintiff in Great Britain rejects the offer of a settlement, he must bear the entire legal costs – including those of the opposing side – as well as the legal costs if he is subsequently awarded less than the settlement amount offered as compensation.

Former footballer Paul Gascoine, former Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm and many others initially joined the lawsuit. However, they also reached an out-of-court agreement with NGN.

The royal is leading a real crusade against the “tabloid press”, as the tabloid press is called in Great Britain. It wants to show that the methods were systematic. “No one is better suited to pull this off than me,” he once said in the documentary “Tabloids on Trial” on the British TV channel ITV. He fought it out on behalf of everyone, said the royal.

He had also made it clear again and again that he blamed the accidental death of his mother Princess Diana in Paris in 1997 on the paparazzi who were on her and her companions’ heels at the time. He indicated several times that he feared that his wife Meghan could suffer a similar fate.

He also blames the exit from the inner circle of the royal family, which he and Meghan completed a good five years ago, and the falling out with relatives on both sides, in part, on the tabloid media, which has followed him wherever he goes since he was a child.