SNL star has ‘no regrets’ about calling out ‘Mr Nazi Salute’ Elon Musk
â??Saturday Night Liveâ?? star previously revealed that Musk made her cry when he hosted the show in 2021
Read more >> : Cick here
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Prince Harry receives apology from Rupert Murdoch newspapers in settlement deal | News
Prince Harry claimed a "monumental" victory over Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper group on Wednesday after the publisher settled his lawsuit, admitting unlawful actions at its Sun tabloid for the first time and paying unspecified damages.
Click Here to read in detail
Prince Harry claimed a "monumental" victory over Rupert Murdoch's U.K. newspaper group on Wednesday after the publisher settled his lawsuit, admitting unlawful actions at its Sun tabloid for the first time and paying unspecified damages.
Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles, was suing the publisher of the Sun and the long-defunct News of the World at the High Court in London, alleging News Groups Newspapers (NGN) unlawfully obtained private information about him from 1996 until 2011.
News Group offered 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," according to a statement Harry's lawyer, David Sherborne, read in court.
Sherborne said a deal had been struck with NGN agreeing to pay significant damages and that NGN had admitted Harry had been the victim of unlawful activity by the Sun and had suffered phone-hacking at the hands of the News of the World.
WATCH l Win a 'vindication' for others who couldn't afford fight, says Harry's lawyer:Prince Harry's lawyer talks about ‘monumental victory’ after settlement and apology for U.K. tabloids
3 hours agoDuration 0:56
Hear from Prince Harry's lawyer, David Sherborne, after a settlement was reached in a long-standing privacy claim against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers on Wednesday.Sherborne said "the time for accountability has arrived," calling on the British police and the U.K. government to open probes, alleging that NGN executives helped purge 30 million emails over the years, hampering the civil case.
The lawyer, who said the claimants intend to provide the police with a "dossier exposing wrongdoing," also took aim at Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of the Sun between 2003 and 2009.
Brooks resigned from the parent company now known as News Corp UK shortly before she was arrested in July 2011 on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and other charges. She was acquitted at a 2014 trial, and rejoined News Corp UK the following year. Â
"At her trial in 2014, Rebekah Brooks said, 'When I was editor of The Sun, we ran a clean ship,'" Sherburne said. "Now, 10 years later, when she is CEO of the company, they now admit, when she was editor of The Sun, they ran a criminal enterprise."
The apology to Harry in full"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," read News Group's apology.
"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 further apologizes 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 apologize for the distress caused to the Duke, and the damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family, and have agreed to pay him substantial damages."
News Group says harmful actions are in the pastHarry has long railed against the British tabloids over their reporting and paparazzi, suing a number of British tabloid press outlets.
He first brought the lawsuit against NGN in 2019, and an eight-week trial to decide their hotly contested lawsuit was supposed to start on Tuesday.
Media baron Rupert Murdoch, left, and then-editor of the Sun Rebekah Brooks are shown in London in July 10, 2011, shortly before her arrest related to the company's phone hacking scandal. (Max Nash/AFP/Getty Images)Harry — who became the first senior royal to appear as a witness in court in 130 years at a separate trial in 2023 — was scheduled to give evidence next month.
It is believed Harry is currently in California, where he resides now.
Harry has admitted in a British documentary that the crusade had been "part of a rift," with members of the Royal family.
King Charles opposed the litigation, Harry has said in legal filings.
NGN has paid out hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone-hacking and other unlawful information gathering by the News of the World, and settled more than 1,300 lawsuits involving celebrities, politicians, well-known sports figures and ordinary people who were connected to them or major events.
But it has always rejected any claims that there was wrongdoing at the Sun newspaper, or that any senior figures knew about it or tried to cover it up, as Harry's lawsuit alleges.
In a statement, an NGN spokesperson said its apology was for the unlawful actions of private investigators working for The Sun, not of its journalists.
"There are strong controls and processes in place at all our titles today to ensure this cannot happen now. There was no voicemail interception on The Sun," the spokesperson said, adding that the settlement marked the likely end of any lawsuits, and that future cases were liable to be thrown out.
British lawmaker also receives apologyThe Labour Party's Tom Watson, who serves in the House of Lords, was to be part of the trial for similar claims as the Duke of Sussex. Watson also received an apology from the Murdoch company on Wednesday.
NGN offered "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."
Former deputy leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson walks outside the Rolls Building of the High Court during the trial in Harry's lawsuit against NGN, in London on Wednesday. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)In their joint statement, Harry and Watson said NGN had now paid out more than 1 billion pounds ($1.77B Cdn) over the years.
Watson, in his own remarks outside court, praised Harry's "bravery and unbelievable courage" in pursuing the matter "under extraordinary pressure."
The lawmaker called on Rupert Murdoch to offer a personal apology to Harry and others who had their privacy breached by organizations in his media empire.
Hugh Grant last year settled with NGN over claims journalists used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house. The actor expressed reluctance at doing so, but said legal costs were potentially prohibitive, and that he would donate proceeds from the settlement he won to press advocacy groups.
The News of the World folded after 168 years of operation in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. It was revealed the Murdoch tabloids had employed private investigators and former police officers to snoop on thousands. Voicemails of politicians and celebrities were breached, and outrage ensued in 2011 when it was believed the hacked list included a teenage murder victim.
At a British parliamentary hearing, Murdoch expressed regret over what had happened at his U.K. papers but insisted he bore no personal responsibility.
WATCH | Harry wins case against Daily Mirror owner (2023):Prince Harry wins phone-hacking lawsuit against Mirror tabloid chain
1 year agoDuration 2:07
Prince Harry is declaring victory after a London judge says he was a victim of phone hacking by the British publisher Mirror Group Newspapers."The people that I trusted to run it, and then maybe the people they trusted," did, he said.
Murdoch's companies own a slew of other news organization around the world including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the U.S., the Times of London in the U.K. and several companies in his birthplace, Australia.
Harry was previously awarded 140,600 pounds (about $240,430 Cdn)Â after London's High Court ruled he had been a victim of "modest" phone-hacking and other unlawful information gathering by journalists at Britain's Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).
Harry had sued MGN, the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People.
But the Duke of Sussex was ordered to pay legal costs to the Daily Mail in another legal bid that fizzled, and he subsequently abandoned that case.
