The Prince and the Press: Continuing the Discussion on Prince Harry and the UK Media

[MrsMaxDeWinter]

A few weeks ago, there were three really great long running threads about Prince Harry and his battles against the UK "popular press."

I thought I would do one that looks at Harry's current court action.

For those interested in the kind of balanced view you won't get from the tabloids, all of whom face conflicts of interest, here is the Guardian take, which is the springboard for this discussion.

It is not possible to take any of the tabloids seriously when they report on Harry's legal cases. Former editor Alan Rusbridger, now of Prospect, has observed that all tabloids covering this story are acting unethically as they have not declared their conflicts of interest: Harry is suing all of their media houses.

The only papers with no conflict of interest are the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Financial Times.

So I will be following this from the Guardian live page.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/04/diana-meghan-and-the-tabloid-press-harry-finally-gets-his-day-in-court

Thanks for that, it looks v interesting

I didn’t know whether to post this or not, but just to say it’s not equivalent to rape. Rape is such an intimate crime, it’s a physical act, and it’s a very specific crime. Rape doesn’t mean anything that happens that you didn’t agree to, or anything that feels like a violation, or anything where people challenge your version of events afterwards (a lot of things are similar to that!). Those are features of rape trials, but it’s not fair to basically say this is like a rape trial minus the rape, because being raped was the big thing. In fact the vast majority of people who are raped will never give evidence at a trial. I’m sure it wasn’t meant that way but I would just ask to consider it… I didn’t have my privacy violated, I had my whole body violated.

Fair enough @tigger2022

💐 To you for what you went through

Tigger.

I agree. I was actually going to post this earlier but thought it wasn't worth the aggro that I would receive for it

I don't think it's useful or particularly nice to bring rape trial analogies into the argument. Firstly because rape victims frequently do not get justice because of the higher requirement for evidence (?) in criminal cases which is hard when it's one person's word against another and you need beyond reasonable doubt. Hence physical injuries (sadly) probably make a conviction more likely. The claimants here do not have to provide anywhere near the same level of proof to win their case.

Secondly, Harry could be said to be acting like a member of a rape trial defendant's legal team. He's using the argument, well we know they've done it before so the likelihood is they've also done it this time. How many times have we heard 'well she went home with that bloke and had consensual sex on a previous occasion so the same probably happened this time'? I guess that's partly why I'm uncomfortable with the vagueness of his defence.

@tigger2022

💐 thanks for being so honest with everything, and I’m so sorry you went through that

I was really uncomfortable with the analogy but didn’t feel it was my place to speak on anyone’s behalf.

Thank you ❤️

@tigger2022 , thank you for speaking up ! , I was offended by the comparison myself, as a fellow survivor ( do we ever really survive?)
But didn't want the Agro either! 💐

I know the RF corner can get heated sometimes but I think most people are decent… I hoped people would understand that I wasn’t attacking them, and they did 😊

Sorry phrased that badly … should have said “I hoped people would understand I wasn’t attacking anybody, and they did”

I think most people are decent but I definitely think twice before I post stuff on some RF threads which I don't feel I need to do on other topics (even AIBU).

Same @Sweetpeasaremadeforbees .

@tigger2022 💐to a fellow survivor and thank you for sharing. I understand your thoughts and respect that opinion, I share it to a degree. I think the comparison was to defence tactics which are similar across crimes but all the more inappropriate and often traumatising in sexual crimes. I don't think the crimes, any crimes but some more so than others, should be compared as it always looks like you're trivialising one or the other. The impact of physical crimes cannot be compared to other crimes, but they will share similarities in areas and some of the claimants across the years have truly been traumatised, just obviously differently.

It’s sad how many people here are coming forward as survivors too 😞 (I think I’m more of a coper than a survivor) I suppose one of the RF’s jobs is to act as a bit of a distraction and light relief

@tigger2022

another who felt uncomfortable with that analogy. I felt the same as sweetpeas. (Both posts)

For you. 🌻 From me.

Ohh @tigger2022 💐 , you're lovely don't devalue yourself, everyone has different ways to deal with things , remember sadly that with the high rate of these crimes against women, on a mainly female forum that you are definitely not alone .

I myself can't bare to see the word or hear it spoken, it has a physical affect on me !

you're lovely don't devalue yourself, everyone has different ways to deal with things , remember sadly that with the high rate of these crimes against women, on a mainly female forum that you are definitely not alone .

Absolutely, I was sexually assaulted as a student by a stranger in a dark alleyway (no court case because pre DNA days) and objectively I feel that after all these years I'm fine. But when I'm out with female friends I insist on driving them home if it's dark even if they live only 5 minutes away, always very on edge when I'm walking on my own in the dark and I worry about teenage DD going anywhere on her own so I guess it is always at the back of my mind and probably always will be.

Thank you to @tigger2022

Yes

@Sweetpeasaremadeforbees for you 💐

Thank you jeff. Anyway back to the topic. Presumably MNHQ won't enforce the derailing rule.

@tigger2022 I am so utterly sorry for what you went through, of course you 100% correct - there is no comparrison between the two.

My (clumsy) comparrison was not the nature of the crimes but rather the tactics of the tabloids legal team.

Please accept my apologies.

Thank you @tigger2022 and 🌺from me too.

I thought similar, but was scared to say so.

@tigger2022 💐
Thank you for saying this. I shuddered when I read this comparison, because there is none.

The comparison did seem very unmumsnet-like. But I've seen such wild things written on these boards that it sounded almost in keeping with those.
I'm glad you challenged it, @tigger2022 . That's brave of you.