Extensive Phone Hacking by MGN

[Roussette]

So... Harry has won his case.

As lawyers are saying now... this is massive. 15 out of 33 accusations of hacking by Harry were upheld as a result of phone hacking and other illegal practices.
Hacking and blagging were even taking place during the Leveson enquiry.

He has won damages of £140,000 plus. And before this thread descends into Harry hate, please think of all the other claimants who have also had their claims upheld and damages awarded to them. They went through hell, medical records hacked and reported on, trackers on cars, phones hacked...

It's not about the money, it's about 'accountability of power'.

Totally agree. People hit out like this, throwing everything at it, in the hope something sticks to make him look better... if they are as guilty as hell.

... in short, if as a result of shifting public opinion it serves KC better to cut Piers Morgan loose, he will.

I don't think Charles is protecting Morgan. I do believe that he really loves Harry and I don't think he would protect someone who has been so nasty about Harry and Meghan. There may be protection around Morgan but I think it comes from people with more actual power than Charles.

The monarchy has technical powers that would swiftly be removed if they used it (like shutting down parliament). They seem to use the power of inertia on the press more than anything, wait, be silent and public attention will move on. This they are wary of making statements in response to stories because the more you feed the story the longer it lasts (and this is something I think Harry and Meghan learnt too and it's why they haven't put out a statement about Endgame). Whether the palace should speak a bit more often in response to clickbait is an interesting discussion point, the answer is probably yes and no and I'm sure the results if they did speak out would surprise us. We are used to the media narrative of heroes and villains, facts are usually more complex and sell fewer papers.

It's not the King he will be using it is the police and politicians.

He can't use the Courts as it is clear judges are now not so easily influenced.

Savile used to threaten to ruin and break anyone who investigated him. Journalists used to be told by their editors if they heard a story about Savile and they started to investigate it, to drop it immediately.

Remember the Met Police has been found to be institutionally corrupt. (I am aware other police forces aren't innocent either.) The current head of the Met was around when this corruption was going on.

The UK is a very establishment based society. Yes, the media barons have become very much a part of that establishment and then you've got the freemasons, the knights of the realm, lords and royalty. That filters down into the judiciary. The King is ultimately head of state.

Royals aside though, Morgan has friends in high places and he knows where a lot of bodies are buried. I'd be amazed if he was ever prosecuted.

Not so, I'm afraid. As you're hopefully well aware, the royal family don't need to make any official statements in order to get their messages through the media.

Before Spare (yes, that Amazon Nr.1 best-selling book of the 2023), I don't think the system of senior palace officers and royal courtiers using the royal rota journalists as their mouthpiece, was fully transparent to the general public. Camilla Tominey, Tom Sykes, Roya Nikkah, Katie Nicholl, Jenie Bond etc, and I believe Omid Scobie used to be on it too. The are in a co-dependent relationship with the royal family.

This collusion has been going on since the days of Diana, but Spare was an eye-opener, for me at least, as have been the scandals around the likes of Dan Wootton. If you didn't read the Byline Times series on this, you should. Royal palaces briefing against each other's royals, Camilla trading up gossip about William, then H&M in exchange for her 'rehabilitation' stories, William offering up M&M in exchange for burying the rumours of his affair, on and on and on.

As to Charles loving Harry, what evidence do we have of that? All the observable actions and non-actions (eg pulling of security - see Byline Times, silence in response to Jeremy Clarkson insults that generated probably 40-50'000 complaints to IPSO - they stopped counting at 25'000), eviction from Frogmore, denial of a room overnight for Harry's pre-Invictus etc etc, all of which have been the subject of numerous threads on MN) suggest otherwise.

Anyway, I really don't want to derail this excellent thread. Maybe Morgan's Protector in Chief at the Palace is Camilla. After all, we know she's buddies with both Piers Morgan and the delightful Jeremy Clarkson.

Speaking of which, someone seems to have silenced Jeremy Clarkson, in relation to Meghan, after his Camilla-sponsored tirade last year landed him in hot water. I suspect that person's name starts with Jeff, and ends with Bezos. Clarkson cancelled from one Amazon show... and possibly told: "you STFU, or you'll be cancelled from the other one too!" Hence not a pipsqueak from JC, in all the Endgame furore, or any other H&M related furore. Maybe H&M being spotted in public chatting to Jeff B and Lauren S on multiple occasions recently also helped shut Clarkson up.

I'm musing slightly, but the above does suggest some shifting in the balances of power, which may one day come to bite Piers Morgan too....

I have always believed that Harry wrote ‘Spare’ to get everything out there so that his detractors in the media would not have any new ammunition which could be used against him.
He was then free to pursue them in the courts .

Guardian article published 8 hours sgo

Apologies if this is only an updated article not a new one.

(I have RTFT but not yet read all the links provided by posters but hopefully will - young grandkids have arrived for Christmas holidays so it’s all systems go around my house).

Re discussions about Piers Morgan. Now Rupert Murdoch has stepped down as Chairman of Fox and his son, Lachlan, is now in his place, we might find that Lachlan will not show the same support for Morgan as Rupert may have. Apparently Lachlan is an even tougher nut than his father if some opinions I’ve read are true. Although I’m not sure if being Chairman of Fox means Lachlan is now boss of the whole Murdoch media empire.

Also, I’ve included The Telegraph clip of Morgan giving his doorstep statement which still retains the last few seconds when Morgan turns away and heads back inside his house. Reporters were asking him the same questions many posters are asking here about Morgan’s future. In all the other clips of this interview that I’ve checked that bit is edited out. Morgan did not answer of course.

https://www.youtube.com/live/t8NUMRqw6MU?si=UX05IfrbhWrr7uKE

PM is an entertainer/attention seeker who probably loves the drama. The unfortunate truth is that most people aren’t that bothered that celebs/the royal family were hacked. Yes, they are horrified that it happened to peoples like murdered girl Milly Dowler and Baroness Lawrence. I’m not saying it’s right but the general public are not overly sympathetic to Harry.

Love Jeremy Clarkson and his farming show

@derxa did you think what he wrote about Meghan Markle was in any way excusable? If he wrote an article like that about your daughter or niece or friend or yourself would you still ‘love’ Jeremy Clarkson?

All the women I know and my relatives are mostly rugged types who don’t take themselves too seriously. The article was ill judged and not even funny. I hate Game of Thrones. A misogynistic pile of rubbish.

What on earth has this comment to do with what we're talking about?
We know you do, you've told us many a time

I'd love to comment on Clarkson and what I think of him and his appalling hate filled article, but it's just feeding a derail

Anyway back to the thread. The Observer's view yesterday...

In his continuing campaign to bring the press to account for phone hacking, the Duke of Sussex may succeed where Leveson’s inquiry failed

He was mentioned by @TallerSally

No comment on this win against illegal media practices brought by Harry and others though?

Rachel Johnson has made her comments on LBC.
Apparently Prince Harry is "goading the press into humiliating payouts" and "destroying the industry".
😂

The Johnson siblings; tweedledum and tweedledee, clearly have a problem with punishing illegal activity.

They have no problem with other people being held accountable, but when it comes to their own illegal activities, or the industry they work in, then suddenly the tune changes and no-one should face financial penalties.

It's almost funny, if it wasn't so tragic.

I’m pleased that Harry has been successful in his law suits. What else is there to say? He’ll never be happy though.

@minou123 😂 That is funny!

why should he be happy. he was hacked

I think it’s fine not to be bothered that celebs and royal family were hacked. But people should still be pleased that this case was brought and won for precisely the reasons you state yourself - the ordinary people that were unfortunate enough to find themselves at the centre of a media storm. Could’ve been any of us.

We all know Harry was hacked as were many other people and it’s a disgusting act that hopefully has been wiped out
Its good he won but the hyperbole on here you would think he’s the second coming ( I know it’s Christmas)

Yes. Those ordinary people who get doirstepped by the media, have their phones hacked, have people they know offered sums of money to tell tales, they can't afford to take these cases to court. Harry etc Al can. No matter how much the tabloids say ' Oh rich people don't want scrutiny' if this case results in prosecutions against the press and tighter safeguards then they will be protected when otherwise they wouldn't be. Ironically, I don't think Harry will be as protected, because his family are the ones colluding with the press. They don't need to engage in illegal activity.
Re Charles loving Harry, I think he must do, but partly was not a loved child himself and only got close to his parents when they were all much much older, and partly that the system of Monarchy means that the Monarchy comes first, above all else. I do believe Harry has been incredibly stupid in some things ( why use your kids titles when you know how damaging it is? Why complain about security when you don't work for the RF anymore?) But on this and his dreadful treatment by the press and his family, he is spot on.

It's an ongoing battle.

Of course, he isn't the second coming... but it is quite extraordinary that a member of the R, has stood up in court despite being warned not to, and - along with others - fought this battle, and will continue to do so.

The next battle involves Elton John, Baroness Lawrence, Ricky Tomlinson, Ian Wright, family of George Michael, Liz Hurley, Sadie Frost so expect more threads on this when it comes to court!

Of course not.

This is a good article too

The judgment also makes plain that the Mirror Group’s deletion of phone records and email evidence from the period, and the decision not to call senior editorial staff, including Morgan, to give evidence, must be understood as part of an ongoing culture of cover-up. What went on, the judge told the court, “was concealed from the board, from parliament in 2007 and 2011, from the Leveson inquiry, from shareholders and from the public for years”. Public trust in news, already serially undermined by political and commercial attacks, is again the victim of that denialism. One dangerous consequence of these latest revelations has been renewed calls for legislative oversight of press freedom, which a democracy must always resist.

When Harry first announced, five years ago, that he would make it his “life’s work” to seek justice for his family’s treatment by the tabloids, it was characterised – invariably in those same papers – as a fool’s errand. What his mission might now prove to be, however, is a half-workable replacement for the planned second phase of the Leveson inquiry, which was shamefully abandoned by Matt Hancock as culture secretary in 2018

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/17/observer-view-prince-harry-court-victory-mirror-group-newspapers