The Press & The Royals: a discussion

[Whaeanui]

As we were just having a great discussion on this topic I’m going to try again to continue it on a thread of its own. A previous thread highlighted two particularly prolific ‘royal reporters’, but the same is true for all. They often manufacture stories to create divisions between the women in the family, more often than the men. The public seem to feed off this and none of the family get treated very well except the monarch. So do we think it is possible for the royal family to stay relevant and in the publics mind without their unhealthy relationship with the media? Can social media replace this? What do you think they can do to make positive changes that would reflect an understanding of the mental health challenges the media intrusion results in? Also their role in charities that deal with mental health and misogyny, mistreatment of women etc could be impacted by this too. Thoughts?
Please do not derail this thread by discussing your personal dislike of particular members or if they deserve it. I would like a discussion on how the royal family could change the relationship with the press.

You have no idea of the settlement details but was most likely a private settlement and so he could hardly declare it publicly as a ‘source of income’ 🙄

William doesn’t seem to have the same need to overshare as his brother.

I’m so sorry to get the tag wrong! Apologies. @PicturesOfDogs we are talking about the sun and this case and his settlement in 2020 though. What did that settlement change? Anything? So just an individual financial benefit, right?

Surely the lawyers need Harry to agree to their tactics? They can advise him to include it but I think he should be able to say no.

William gets his staff to overstate on his behalf instead!

We could do this all day, but there are other threats to endlessly compare the brothers.

I started the thread to discuss what the royal family can do to change the relationship with the press that seems to disproportionately impact women marrying into it. What does this recent case, settlements etc do to change any of this?

Maybe the settlement included something about an agreement to protect Kate's privacy and he didn't want to invade her privacy by disclosing it?

‘Maybe’ 🤷🏽‍♀️

Oh sorry - I thought you asked someone else.

William’s actions contributed to the prosecution and jail sentences of two hackers including the royal editor of the NOTW - this will have been off putting to any future hackers - and the settlement will have hurt the publishers, especially if it were a large one.

If either brother want to go after the press in court for huge breeches of privacy, I am all for
it. I just think everyone demanding to know more is quite funny. No wonder their phones were hacked - the public are slavering to know every detail.

@Whaeanui

Ive read what William did earlier from Serenster’s posts. There are different ways to skin a cat.

No worries, however I think we are speaking at cross purposes.
I was talking about the actions of the RF making legal representations against the paper changing the landscape. Which it did.

Them bringing legal action obviously came before the settlement. Settlement and change in landscape were both the results of legal action, but of course settlement in and of itself was not catalyst for anything to change, but also a result.

@DuchessOfPort sorry I got confused over usernames! I was talking about the 2020 settlement anyway.

*only a result

It is part of Harry's legal case and probably the lawyers' decision.

The client gives the lawyer the instructions on what they want in and out, not the other way around. Some clients will ignore their lawyer’s advice, even when he lawyer tries their utmost to persuade them that it’s a bad idea to tack a particular tack, or include particular information.

😀

@PicturesOfDogs I think they played a role in bringing it to peoples attention but the changing of landscape part was the hard work of many others.

I just think everyone demanding to know more is quite funny. No wonder their phones were hacked - the public are slavering to know every detail.

very true, but the irony seems lost on some

Why are people saying this? That is the funny bit!

I don't want to know more. I don't want to know details of the hacking. I don't want to know the amount William received. I don't want to know every detail.

Oh, I totally agree, it wasn’t solely them.
However, they did definitely play a part.

Ultimately, they were victims, not perpetrators.

And there’s no ‘right or wrong’ way of being a victim, and it’s seems likely they’d had enough of being splashed over the papers, so tried to come to a satisfactory conclusion with less press, less invasion, less publicity, not more.

It makes sense to me. May not be how others dealt with it, but it’s their fight, and their right to deal with it in the way they were comfortable with.

You just want to know exactly what he done with it.

@PicturesOfDogs i get that perspective. Totally. But if others weren’t willing to take it to trial, they may just get away with it. I mean just a couple of people went to prison, not the big players and only NOTW was shut down over it despite clearly The Sun being part of it, and possibly ANL. So I think more change is needed, at the very flipping least an actual independent press regulator, but I think illegal things happened and the people responsible were never punished adequately.

He absolutely did though - him taking his case to Scotland Yard directly led to criminal prosecutions and the Leveson enquiry - and no more phone hacking of his and his family’s phones.

Yes and it is commendable that he took this to Scotland Yard which directly led to the Leveson Inquiry. However something happened in 2020 enough for William to make a claim and reach a settlement with News International. I think this means that they (the media) are still up to the same questionable activities they were up to before - this is pure conjecture on my part of course and makes me sad for the RF that they have to make these types of deals. I completely understand why they reach them I just think it’s a horrible way to live.

It’s really normal to have an agreement to not comment publicly included in a negotiated settlement (remember that a final settlement is not just a list of everything the claimant wants). I think you’re all overthinking it.

Laughing my socks off at being told I can't post on a thread on a public forum 😂😂😂😂😂

@skullbabe I so agree, they shouldn’t be subjected to any of this and it isn’t a good way to live. It’s wrong and those who have done this to them and everyone else need to be held properly accountable.

Because you keep telling a few of us that we can’t engage with you, on a public forum and on our own threads. Do you not see how hypocritical your own position is? If you repeatedly ask I don’t engage with you even when I’m not, why come to my thread to do that? It’s really really strange and kind of feels like stalking.

He is entitled to use information that is legally relevant.

That’s not the case, actually. You can’t just put anything you want into your court documents - there is a ban on revealing “without prejudice” information, for example. And if you breach someone’s else’s legal rights by revealing information, you open yourself up to action from them because of that.

That’s without getting into whether what another person did in relation to that person’s own personal legal rights will ever going to be legally relevant to your own case. William cannot have impacted Harry’s own legal rights by entering into a settlement agreement with the Sun. It doesn’t set any kind of precedent, either.