Fuck a doodle do.

In a statement, Prince Harry said the ruling was "vindicating and affirming" and took aim at senior executives and editors including Piers Morgan - who was in charge at the Daily Mirror from 1995 to 2004.

Judge Mr Justice Fancourt found Morgan knew about phone hacking at the paper.

He said the Duke's phone was probably only hacked to a modest extent and was "carefully controlled by certain people" from the end of 2003 to April 2009.

Jesus -- this is.... unbelievable.

When asked what he thought the way forward was, he said to scrap the current press regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation, which he likened to a "poodle".

"You have to get independent regulation as Leveson called for, which we haven't got because, there's a self regulator poodle, not a watchdog," he said. 

"You also need to have the Leveson Inquiry restarted or completed... which the government cancelled at the request of those being investigated."

The Tory government should hang its head in shame. I mean -- it won't, but seriously -- this is appalling.

The government has failed to find the courage to hold the press accountable, a media lawyer has said.

Jonathan Coad said that despite Prince Harry's victory, only politicians can bring about real change.

However, it has never ensured the press regulated itself according to the principles set out in the Leveson Inquiry, he said.

"If you're going to be accountable, someone has got to have the courage to hold you accountable," he told Sky News. 

"Harry has fought the battle and said it needs to change, but it is only going to change if politicians have the courage to take on Fleet Street.

"At the moment, they have shown a complete lack of intention of doing so.

What was the Leveson Inquiry and why is it relevant?

In 2011, Judge Sir Brian Leveson led a public inquiry after it was revealed News Of The World journalists had hacked the phone of murdered school girl Milly Dowler.

Initially intended to be carried out in two sections, the first part of the inquiry looked at the culture, practices and ethics of the press. It involved celebrities including Hugh Grant, Sienna Miller, Steve Coogan and Charlotte Church.

Part two of the Leveson Inquiry was meant to investigate the relationship between journalists and the police, but never took place. There have since been calls to re-open it.

And a general reminder as always, regardless how the media spin this - it's not about the money, it's not about Harry whining about the press and privacy - it's him wanting people who broke the law, over and over and over, chasing stories and private information, facing consequences. As they should.

Also, having Africa and conservation as a joint interest was a mistake.

I think that was because Harry had no real interests of his own other than partying, getting high and playing video games. He's just as empty as his wife in that regard. In fact I think he's actually worse. If they looked inside of him like they did Meghan in South Park, all they see would be a seething cauldron of rage and resentment.

Just as Meghan's been single white female-ing Kate, Harry has been doing that too to William all his life. And it's even more disturbing cos as u said, Meghan wanted Kate to be her bff but with her as the main bitch and Kate as the lesser friend. While Harry hates William, his archenemy. He wants whatever William has (money, family, Kate, interests, importance, respect, character, height, Diana's face and his special bond with her) and better. Failing that, he'd drag him down to his level. Thus the reputation and character assassination attempts by projecting his own flaws (envious, violent, malevolent, shady, sinister) onto William and accusing him of things he himself is guilty of (cheating, leaking and briefing against his family, betrayal, bullying, shady dealing).

See what happened in his hacking case. William had actually been the one who set things in motion that led to the leveson inquiry and press reforms when he reported his suspicion of a hacking to the police. But Harry twisted it around and painted William's private settlement as a secret shady dealing to appease the tabloids while claiming himself as the hero on a crusade using an old case that had been dealt with a long time ago when HE actually had been the one who fraternized with reporters in exchange for favorable coverage.

He is twisted and malevolent. No matter what happens with his marriage, the brf needs to make sure he stays away from William and his family. He wants to see William ruined and his faux concern about the Wales kids felt sinister and was telling -- he wants them to be as messed up as he is to vindicate himself and to punish William.

This is very insightful. It’s also kind of creepy when you take into consideration the rumors about him and Pippa.

author's note | chapter 8: bones 🦴

thank you for reading chapter eight of Beasts! this week, it's hotting up politically - ginny meets with the minster of magic, enjoys a hot beverage with all of her ex boyfriends, finds out about the clinton impeachment and rides the east coast mainline from edinburgh to london for free with no cancellations or delays a week before christmas. now that really is magic.

got a bumper author's note this week (and some metas to follow), plus a sneak peek of chapter nine (oh the cameos we've got coming! i've got flashback fever). i am also accepting any and all guesses for who the gang will go as for the grimmauld muggle-themed NYE party. we know anthony's going as tony blair, terry boot's deciding between a terry's chocolate orange or the golden boot, but what will the rest of the DA go as? answers on a postcard/in the askbox pls. ok let's discuss this wet and wintery chapter that i wrote at the beach during a heatwave in august, for some reason

✨ spoilers for this chapter below the cut  ✨

writing things and headcanons:

the hogwarts inquiry and graves on the ministry: the chapter opens with graves (himself an ex ministry employee, though we don’t know the circumstances of his exit yet) poking holes in the wizengamot’s approach to justice thus far in the post-war period, suggesting holding individuals accountable - especially someone like thicknesse who was imperiused - misses how the entire wizarding state is implicated in wartime crimes against muggleborns and other persecuted groups. also disillusioned by the way post-war trials are going, kingsley wants to take a different course of action to get to the bottom of what happened at hogwarts during the war. a lot of post-war fics do an amazing job doing post-war justice through criminal trials, and i wanted to do something a bit different for this fic that is explicitly interested in places and institutions and the cultures they foster (hogwarts and the ministry itself, but grimmauld place and, soon, the burrow, home to different kinds of institutions, including families). like a lot of people who grew up in the uk in the early 00s public inquiries - like the leveson inquiry into media culture and phone hacking, or the chilcott inquiry into the iraq war - really left a big impression on me (though i’m sure this is also true in lots of political cultures, not least in the US in things like senate hearings etc). i also really love seeing inquiries and hearings rendered in fiction (in tv, jesse armstrong shows like the thick of it and succession), so knew i wanted to have a go writing these into this fic. there are actually quite a few inquiries of varying scale that happen in the canon series (though none are public), so we know this is a mechanism the ministry has previously used to investigate various breaches of law or accepted norms (in CoS, arthur faces one over the car; over buckbeak in PoA; into percy over crouch; dumbledore asks for one after the dementor attack on harry, which fudge rejects; into bode’s murder at st mungo’s, and into the miscarriage of justice that saw sirius jailed for the potters’ murders). i’m literally just going to quote from taylor_fannon074’s gorgeous comment on this because it’s so well put: 

‘The Wizarding World knows that their children have been forcibly put at the center of a war they didn’t know existed for most of it. Children are the first line of attack when it comes to implementing fascist ideologies. People  areso sensitive about children and it’s a perfect weapon to utilize against anything that you want. It’s why Dumbledore became headmaster when he could’ve been Minister of Magic. It’s why the Malfoys are Voldemort’s greatest allies. If it were just about the Carrows they’d carry all the blame, now the defendants are the Ministry. Kingsley is using this tactic to direct the people’s anger towards the Ministry’s systemic oppression. He’s giving the kids a platform to talk about how a werewolf was the greatest teacher they ever had and several ministry officials tortured them. It calls the ministry’s competency into question, planting the seeds of doubt. I don’t think Kingsley aiming for a full scale revolution but trying to open the curtains and get wizards more active in their community.  He’s going after that statute of secrecy next, I can feel it in my bones!!!!’

kingsley: there are so many really great reads on kingsley as minister after the war, particularly kingsley taking on the ruthless (and manipulative) instincts of a politician, and speculation about that might clash with harry’s worldview and longstanding resentment of ministers carrying about things like public image and making moral compromises to get things done. i don’t disagree with those reads at all, and think they have a ton of basis in canon. what i knew i wanted in beasts, though, was to see if you could write a different kingsley, someone who hasn’t abandoned his principles but instead is trying to centre them. i wanted to play with the idea that all politicians are the same’, asking how kingsley’s contradictions - an avowed progressive, a lifelong ministry insider with more links to the muggle world than most, a resistance fighter turned a minister of magic trusted and admired by the children of the order - would shape his approach to try to capture post-war momentum for rebuilding and make real change, whatever that might look like. i also wanted this dynamic of kingsley and ginny having some familiarity with each other that we don’t see from the canon series that might hint at some wartime interactions we haven’t seen yet. anyway i wrote this scene with kingsley and ginny ages ago and then i read the unfinished but excellent fic about ginny and post-war justice cited below and was crushed to see someone had already written a version of the same scene much better. what a blow! (read that fic)

ginny’s card-making: ginny weasley loves to decorate and she loves christmas. canon could not be clearer about this. if you think she wouldn’t spitefully refuse to wish minerva mcgonagall seasons’ greetings then i’m sorry i think you are wrong with a capital W. graves didn’t get a card but he did get an essay because she’s warming up to him a bit but cards are only for those who aren’t on ginny approval probation 

writing on the wall: actually this is just me apologising to the anon who sent me this ask ages ago and i didn’t reply because i knew i had this scene in the bank and didn’t want to spoil it but yeah basically anon i could not agree with you more!!! i think it’s really a squandered opportunity in canon not to make more of this - in those old ootp planning notes jkr was going to have ginny write on the wall about umbridge in temper, but then removed it, so clearly was thinking of the DA wall daubing as a parallel with CoS but then… gave the line to neville lol. fuming. anyway! had to be done! thank u so much anon and so sorry again!

beasts, beings and patronuses: my favourite part of this chapter to write! (obviously that’s a lie it was the bit where harry and ginny shagged but second favourite for sure). graves goes all enlightenment subjectivity theory again smh, and then suggests what’s happened with the stag antlers might be something to do with a great disturbance to harry’s soul. @saintsenara think this is me steathily building up a tomarry endgame - other theories are circulating, all theories have me salivating

slughorn: hardcore hinny shipper, we have to stan. what’s he up to? also rina girl get back to school you're making ginny look conscientious

hermione: thank you to the extremely patient romione folks in my inbox - the trouble with this plot is that i have to keep all the romione bits off stage for now (and i have written some hermione and ron pov missing moment scenes that i might drop when this plot is fully developed and the mystery has ended) but for now i’m just sorry that so far in the published chapters the hermione plot is all unhealthy coping mechanisms and no answers!

muggle london: did i go rummaging on the freedom of information requests sent to transport for london to find out adult and child fares for central london weekend travel in 1998? yes i did. you never know when the transport pedants are going to flood your mentions !!! ‘are you a child’ ‘sort of’ could be summary of the entire fic really couldn’t it

the exes: i knew i wanted an unlikely character to speak a bit of truth to ginny, someone she wouldn’t be expecting to call her on her shit. the idea of using one of her exes to do it seemed satisfying for a couple of different reasons. i liked the idea of using a character who knows ginny well and who sees through her a bit, but also has nothing to lose throwing out some tough love to her face because they don’t really have any investment in being in her good books anymore. i also liked the idea of not taking ginny’s canonical descriptions of her relationships with her exes for granted, and using those relationships as an example of previous incidences where this character has kidded themselves, or at least come up with a retroactive narrative of something that has happened to them as a coping mechanism that actually masks a bigger, more complicated truth. (i have a longer meta on ginny and her exes i’ll post this week that isn’t expressly beasts-related where i’ll bang on about my read on what these relationships were to her, but for now suffice to say it seemed important in a fic that is at heart a coming of age ginny character study to draw in characters who were likely formative for her in her teenage years in some way). dean seemed a complicated choice, though (more about him below), so… michael corner it was. 

michael corner (or: characterisation when the character has about five whole lines in the whole of canon): 

this is michael corner this whole chapter:

i had a ball trying to figure out how to write michael corner, as the discord girlies can attest. michael is a very minor character in the series, with only a handful of scenes/appearances, and he spends most of them being a little dickhead lmao. the man never stops interrupting people to call them out/correct them. in his first scene in canon in ootp, at the hog’s head, michael sasses hermione on her motivations to set up the DA (‘“You want to pass your DADA O.W.L. too though, I bet?”’ - that earns him a snippy clapback) and then interrupts harry when harry’s being modest to both praise him but also correct him lol (‘“Not with the dragon, you didn’t,” said Michael Corner at once. “That was a seriously cool bit of flying...”’.) in DH, he yells at harry for planning to nip in and nip out of hogwarts when all the DA are living in hiding (‘“You’re going to leave us in this mess?” demanded Michael Corner’), and then gets annoyed at luna for being dumb about the diadem (‘“Yeah, but the lost diadem,” said Michael Corner, rolling his eyes, “is lost, Luna. That’s sort of the point.”’) when it comes to ginny, she calls him a ‘fool’ when he almost gives the game away about the DA in the hall, and when they’re paired up at the DA and she’s killin it hexing him he’s “either very bad or unwilling to jinx her”. given his interest in his academics - and that he’s a ravenclaw - i think we can suspect it’s the latter, a display of chivalric concern that was never going to go down well with gin. they then break up after ginny decides he’s too ‘sulky’ about ravenclaw’s loss at quidditch, after which michael immediately goes off to get with cho (michael and harry bonding over their shared type fic when). but. michael’s also someone ginny (someone who does not suffer fools!) went out with for an entire year, so can’t be a total dickhead, clearly knows right from wrong and has moments of real bravery - joining the DA in the first place, but also enduring torture that neville describes as particularly horrific for trying to rescue a chained up first-year during the DH, which would almost certainly make him deserving of ginny’s respect after the war. being in the DA under the carrows must have been an intense bonding experience for all involved, and actually would have forced ginny and michael back into each other’s lives in a way that forced them to develop some kind of working relationship. all this then added up to the decisions i made to write him as he is in beasts: someone who is grouchy, sassy, contrarian, too competitive, a bit jealous of others’ abilities (the sore loser), and fond of calling people out/correcting people, but also someone who speaks his mind and whose heart is, ultimately, in the right place, a bit of an arse but not a baddie. and i think that makes sense as a character ginny weasley would be attracted to, at least initially, and who she can get behind as someone whose opinion she will listen to, with a pinch of salt.

bonus michael headcanons: other characterisation bits that are more headcanons than anything else: michael, terry and anthony’s band. ginny is canonically a fan of the weird sisters, with a poster up in her room. the weird sisters play at the yule ball.  michael and ginny meet at the yule ball. like literally nine billion other teenage relationships, wouldn’t be fun if michael and ginny first met/got to chatting because they both liked the same band? then that became: well, dean was artistic - what if ginny’s into creatives? wouldn’t it be a laugh if michael, terry and anthony, this three piece gang of boy besties, were in a band? so that became me imagining them all in a promising but bit-too-clever-for-their-own-good indie band, alt-j or vampire weekend of the 90s, very into the smiths. (the album cover ginny recognises in their flat ‘of a white turreted castle, lush woodland by a sunlit lake’ is blur’s country house - partly because the castle in that album art looks a bit like hogwarts, but also because country house was the single that, as british readers might remember, was in a very famous race for number 1 with oasis in the battle of britpop in august 1995, which became about the middle-class southern band (blur) vs the northern working class equivalent (oasis). in my mind the ravenclaw boys would have been team blur and the gryffindor boys are team oasis lol. 90s lore!) the ravenclaw boys being low key into hallucinogenic potions is literally because michael has a throwaway line in hbp where he asks slughorn about felix felicis lol (‘“Have you ever taken it, sir?” asked Michael Corner with great interest.”). so yeah that was enough to get me imagining michael and the boys as low key stoners but also into experimenting with different psychedelic substances and writing bangin’ tunes. they’re boarding school teenage boys, after all!

dean: ah dean 🥺 one day i’ll finish that damn dean fic. the dean we see here is who i imagine dean would be after the war - more lost and alone than literally any of the other main characters, properly unhappy. unlike the golden trio, or the silver trio, dean spends his deeply traumatic war alone, and i think that would fuck him up. he has to go on the run and leave his muggle family behind, a family he’s lied to about the severity of the war (“My parents are Muggles, mate,” said Dean, shrugging. “They don’t know nothing about no deaths at Hogwarts, because I’m not stupid enough to tell them.”’). he must have struggled, as the trio did, with accessing food and finding places of safety, but also had far fewer protections than the trio (no perkins tent, no invisibility cloak, none of hermione’s abilities). he’d also have had to deal with the fact that he’s a young black boy on the run in majority white racist nineties britain, where he would be hyper visible and vulnerable to the suspicions of muggles as well as the wizarding ministry and snatchers (the police/suspicious members of the public are never going to have treated a black teenage boy who seems homeless well). he briefly has the company of ted tonks, surrogate dad figure, dirk cresswell and the goblins, but then watches all but griphook get murdered. then he’s snatched, rescued, and goes to live at shell cottage with his ex’s brother lol. he would have none of the wartime bonding and sense of group solidarity that the wartime DA seem to have built, and while it seems likely he too would join the aurors if invited to punish the people who persecuted him, i think he would feel intensely isolated and lonely as well as challenged by the demands of that job, one he never really seems to crave in canon. got our first few deamus hints here but yeah basically if michael’s going thru one kind of trauma, dean’s going through another, one that he’s never going to open up to the ex who hurt him about. he doesn’t hate ginny - in DH, when he hears about the sword theft, he shows clearly still wants her to be safe and well - but he’s had none of michael’s time to build a post-relationship working friendship with her, and the emotional trust isn’t there anymore. wow bummed myself out writing that out jesus. he could have offered her a cup of tea, though. that’s just basic brit etiquette

baby’s first almost smut: look. what was i supposed to do. these two haven't shared a bed since august. if you think they’re not fucking immediately on sight i simply do not know what to tell you

(gif courtesy of @uncontainedhybrid)

reading list: 

postwar justice (and kingsley as MoM): 

The Weight of the After by PaperyInk  Castles by @pebblysand

the ravenclaw boys: 

these three brilliant fics by chaserzachsmith (crikey)  Notes from the Ravenclaw Bulletin Board by lost_robin

grimmauld place:

haunted house by @bronzeagepizzeria Grimmauld Place: Azkaban by a Different Name by @artemisia-black

beasts and beings:

this meta by @myrskytuuli on harry potter as colonial fantasy 

on the politics of childhood in 20c european politics, especially post-war (not hp fanfiction but historical non-fiction lmao): 

the lost children and kidnapped souls, both by tara zahra 

songs from the playlist for this chapter:

la jeune fille en feu by para one and arthur simonini | i horó 's na hug òro eile by duncan chisholm | blue ridge mountains by fleet foxes | lull by vraell and rosie h sullivan | if we make it through december by phoebe bridgers | please, please, please let me get what i want by the smiths | wading in waist-high water (solstice version) by fleet foxes | feels like a dream by alice boman and perfume genius

and a sneak peek of chapter 9 because now we're at grimmauld and you know what that means... 🐕‍🦺🐾

‘Wow. What a shithole.’ ‘Fred!’ ‘Don’t lie, Mum, you think it’s a shithole, too, I can see it on your face.’  ‘Well, yes, but don’t be rude, this is someone’s house.' ‘Be as rude as you like,’ says a bored voice. They all jump, turn to see a man standing at the foot of the stairs: tall, gaunt, long hair like curtains framing a ten-thousand galleon face. ‘I assure you,’ says Sirius Black, ‘this house is an insult to shitholes everywhere.’

The Observer view on Prince Harry’s court victory over Mirror Group Newspapers

Observer editorial

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

Sun 17 Dec 2023 06.30 GMT

A smiling Prince Harry outside the Royal Courts of Justice, with photographers in the background.

In its defence of the civil court action brought by Prince Harry, Mirror Group Newspapers argued to the death that there was not a shred of evidence to support the Duke of Sussex’s claims of a lifetime of illegal information gathering and phone hacking. “Zilch, zero, nil, de nada, niente, nothing,” Andrew Green KC, the newspapers’ barrister, insisted in summing up. Piers Morgan, Mirror editor for much of the period in question, reiterated that denial – and took the opportunity to double down on his vindictive and blatantly self-serving assault on Harry’s reputation – in a prepared statement for the press on his doorstep on Friday. The damning 386-page judgment of Mr Justice Fancourt, published earlier that morning, tells a very different story, however.

In supporting Harry’s claims, and awarding him £140,600 in damages, it provides an exhaustive catalogue of evidence that “extensive and habitual” unlawful practices went on over a longer period at the Mirror than previously established; that the use of off-the-books private investigators and blaggers and hackers to capture personal details of Harry and his circle – and scores of other high-profile targets – was endemic at the Mirror’s three national titles from 1998 to 2011.

One dangerous consequence of these latest revelations has been renewed calls for legislative oversight of press freedom

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.

Despite its denials, Mirror Group has paid out £100m to other litigants in out-of-court settlements. A further raft of cases will now no doubt follow. A previous test case brought by the Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati established that, even in the absence of a full paper trail, it was clear the illegal practices were “generic” in the papers’ newsrooms from 2001 to 2006. In Mr Justice Fancourt’s assessment, the “generic” period could now extend between 1998 and 2011 – beyond both the arrest and conviction of the News of the World journalist Clive Goodman for similar practices in 2006, and – shockingly – Lord Leveson’s subsequent inquiry into the press.

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. That phase was due to examine the full extent of unlawful practice across the British press, the ways in which journalistic privileges designed, in all our interests, to hold the powerful and criminal to account in extremis, had been cynically “hijacked” to trade, at an industrial scale, in royal gossip and celebrity private lives.

Harry and others will bring further cases against Associated Newspapers’ Daily Mail and Rupert Murdoch’s Sun. It is to be hoped that the disclosure and defence of those actions may serve finally to establish the exact extent and limits of a culture that has been profoundly damaging to journalistic integrity and to British public life. In their notably scant reports of the judgment – a rare royal story in which they apparently have very little curiosity – neither paper referenced those forthcoming actions. No doubt, however, until the full truth is told, lawyers for both groups will continue to be exercised by little else.

"Breaking news: Prince Harry will be given access to leaked ledger copies from the Leveson Inquiry to support his phone hacking claim against the Daily Mail following a decision by the UK Government. He will join other claimants in suing the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. Trial expected in early 2025."

From what I understood the part about hacking has been closed because it was brought too late but there is the part about the press hiring detectives to obtain private info (which is not unlawful) and publishing them (which is unlawful) and only that part of the leveson inquiry will be opened. That's what I understood.

Hi Nonny,

So this is really a lawsuit about private detectives unlawfully publishing private information about people, and not phone hacking? Thank you for clarifying. It still makes no sense to me to have something that was closed opened up again to support another law suit, but I am sure I am missing large chunks of relevant information that would make it make sense.

update: Harry and other claimants are to be given access to leaked ledger copies from the Leveson Inquiry to support their phone hackingclaim against the Daily Mail following a decisionby the Government. Trial expected early 2025. by u/wontyield

⚖️📰 update: Harry and other claimants are to be given access to leaked ledger copies from the Leveson Inquiry to support their phone hacking claim against the Daily Mail following a decision by the Government. Trial expected early 2025. https://ift.tt/bhWrOJF post link: https://ift.tt/oGxejLX author: wontyield submitted: March 01, 2024 at 02:58PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

You have it right. But also, Harry’s lawyer happened to be involved in the inquiry that these documents were illegally obtained from. Of course, he claims the legal team were given these by another “confidential” source.

Sherborne, who represented some celebrities during the Leveson inquiry, said there was no “clear and unambiguous” breach of the inquiry’s confidentiality orders that would mean they could not used in the duke’s claim.

Mr Justice Nicklin put it to Sherborne that the barrister was bound by his own confidentiality undertakings to the Leveson inquiry and was “required to uphold your obligations”.

The judge, questioning Sherborne about the use of the leaked Leveson documents, said: “You’ve got no answer because you have undertaken to protect the confidentiality of these documents. It’s the importance of the undertaking, the importance attached to the undertaking of confidentiality. The ship can be sinking around you, you are required to uphold your obligations, you can’t just say, ‘Oh well, gone now, I’ll release myself from this undertaking’.”

Sherborne said he had not seen the financial documents during the inquiry and that since they were leaked they had been used by the unnamed news website to produce 40 articles with “no attempt to stop them” so the “confidentiality has all but gone”.

He told the judge: “You can’t possibly infer that it can only have come from within the inquiry. There may be other routes, such as whistleblowers. It’s not for me to establish. It’s for [Associated Newspapers] and they haven’t.”

I am pretty sure THIS is the reason Harry didn’t turn up today - his lawyer looked pretty damn bad in court yesterday.

Also, the legal team were the ones who informed the claimants about Burrows’ “confession”, which they all say was what prompted them to sue. Someone wanted these claimants to sue very badly indeed, it seems to me.

https://archive.is/lo2gL

Y I K E S

Forget being disbarred, Sherborne should be sweating bullets about a possible criminal investigation into his actions.

"The Duke of Sussex’s barrister is at the centre of a legal dispute over whether “confidential” information given to the Leveson Inquiry has been misused."

Victoria Murphy in Town & Country on 01 March 2024:

While the internet may be something of a wild west, when it comes to reporting by credible media organizations in the UK, there are clear guidelines on individual’s right to privacy. For newspapers and magazines, this is specifically protected in the UK’s Editors’ Code of Practice. “Everyone is entitled to respect for their private and family life, home, physical and mental health, and correspondence, including digital communications,” the code states. In a clause on hospitals, the guide states, “The restrictions on intruding into privacy are particularly relevant to enquiries about individuals in hospitals or similar institutions.” UK broadcasters abide by Ofcom regulations, which contain a section on privacy guidance. “Any infringement of privacy in the making of a programme should be with the person’s and/or organisation’s consent or be otherwise warranted,” the guide states.

Dominic Ponsford in the (UK) Press Gazette on 05 March 2024:

No UK media have used a paparazzi image of Kate, the Princess of Wales, observing a long-held convention not to use such pictures. The image was taken by a photographer for Backgrid (which was bought by Shutterstock last month) and was published in the UK on celebrity news website TMZ. Whereas most UK news publications adhere to the Editors’ Code, US publications do not and are used to a legal framework where the First Amendment (guaranteeing freedom of expression) tends to trump the right to privacy. In the UK, the right to privacy is well established and the publication of images such as this one would need to be justified in the public interest. Kate has not been photographed in public since she underwent abdominal surgery on 16 January, prompting widespread speculation on social media about her health. The Editors’ Code, which underpins the work of press regulator IPSO, states: “Everyone is entitled to respect for their private and family life, home, physical and mental health, and correspondence, including digital communications.” It states that it is unacceptable to photograph people without their consent in public places where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. The photograph in question, which is grainy and looks to have been taken with a long lens, shows the Princess on a private car journey being driven by her mother. Vice-chair of the National Association of Press Agencies Mike Leidig said: “By long arrangement with Buckingham and Kensington Palaces, the British media agrees not to intrude into areas, such as health, which could be considered sensitive. In return, they are kept up to date off the record.  “There is also the IPSO Editors’ Code clause on privacy, which binds the British media to show restraint and sensitivity to people undergoing medical treatment, even if they appear to be in a public place where anyone could see them. “Having said that, there does seem to be an anomaly where the British public has to remain in the dark about the Princess of Wales’s recovery while readers in America, or anyone with internet access can see it for themselves. It was running on X almost within seconds.” Camilla Tominey, an associate editor of the Daily Telegraph covering politics and the Royal Family, said: “My understanding is no newspaper is running them in the UK because they are deemed a breach of privacy and there’s no longer a market for paparazzi photographs of the Royals in the wake of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and the Leveson Inquiry.” And executive director of the Society of Editors Dawn Alford said: “The decision by the UK press not to publish the paparazzi photos of Kate Middleton is an example of responsible journalism. Kensington Palace has asked that the Princess of Wales be allowed to recover in private following her operation and UK newsrooms are respecting this.” Agency Backgrid which took the Kate image was involved in an incident in New York last May when Prince Harry said he and his wife Meghan were chased around the city by paparazzi photographers.

Let's not forget--as Richard Palmer pointed out--that Kate was photographed on a public road.

But as it was mentioned in the second to last paragraph in the Press Gazette, "Kensington Palace has asked that the Princess of Wales be allowed to recover in private following her operation and UK newsrooms are respecting this."

KENSINGTON PALACE is dictating that UK media not cover Kate. If it wasn't clear before today, it should be now that William decided to treat THE BRITISH ARMY as his public adversary.

I’m Alright Jack!

Do you remember the Leveson inquiry into press standards, which cost the UK taxpayer almost £4 million? The inquiry was divided into two parts and the final report of Part One, which investigated whether the existing Press Complaints Commission was fit for purpose, decided a new, independent, statutory complaints procedure should  be set up to replace it.

Tory PM David Cameron, who had set up the inquiry, refused to implement the recommendations and the British press continues to be both judge and jury of its own behaviour.

The second part of the Leveson inquiry was to investigate “"the extent of unlawful or improper conduct within News International, other media organisations, and whether the police received corrupt payments or were otherwise complicit in misconduct."

David Cameron cancelled the second part of the inquiry and News International was never investigated.

The Murdock family owns news International, now known as News Corporation. The Murdock family also own Fox Corporation in the USA and were recently in the headlines when they made a $787.5m payout to Dominion for deliberately and knowingly spreading false information about the company after the 2020 US election. 

Dominion, by paying an out of court settlement, allowed the Murdock’s to avoid an in-depth scrutiny of their libellous actions.

The Guardian (19/04/23) had this to say: 

“…while Fox doled out an unprecedented sum, they were able to avoid something priceless: the public humiliation of a trial and an apology.”

Today we learn that something very similar has happened here in England. Prince William has apparently settled a phone-hacking claim against the Murdock group, for a "very large sum" of money.

If this is true it tells us as much about Prince William as it does the about the unsavoury behaviour of the Murdock news empire. I would have hoped that Prince William, our future king, would have had the moral backbone to take Murdock’s News Group Newspapers to court so that if they had been behaving illegally their actions could be publicly exposed. Alas, it seems Prince William lacked the moral courage necessary and preferred instead to take the money and run. A future king should have the well being of his subjects uppermost in his mind but in this instance monetary self-interest seems to have won out over moral responsibility.

As one newspaper said about the Dominion settlement, the multimillion-dollar pay-out for the Murdock’s was just the price for doing business. Much in the same way British water companies illegally dump sewage into our rivers and seas because it is cheaper to do this than pay for modernising treatment plants, so unscrupulous newspapers and media outlets will continue to engage in illegal practices and peddle half-truths and lies until they are brought to public account in the British courts.

i did pay an unnecessary amount of attention to the news / politics / current affairs in general as a kid but 2012 remains to my mind a uniquely eventful year

If the 2016 KP statement’s claims of pap break-ins had been met with this kind of healthy skepticism we would be in a very different place right now. - I think the problem with that statement was 1) it kind of came out of nowhere & was unusual enough to shock into silence; 2) the Leveson inquiry was in the background. 3) I remember people already asking the 'is Harry ever marrying' q after another Cambridge + Harry engagement. He doesn't get the benefit of the doubt now.

Good points.

But that’s part of the problem they have now. Back then Harry was perceived as “stuck” in that role. He was someone who supposedly hated being a public figure bc of past trauma, but who had to be a public figure bc of his birth. There was a lot of sympathy toward him bc of that.

But now it’s different. He doesn’t my have to publish a memoir. He doesn’t have to do a documentary. He doesn’t have to show up at his wife’s awards ceremony. If he’s that traumatized, he can just stay home and play with his rescue chickens.

The UK media was willing to change their practices for him, but the US media isn’t. If he doesn’t like the way they work, he can just stay home and lead a quiet life.

Who knows what he really means because he’s very bad at expressing himself, but maybe he means that he wasn’t “allowed” to bring personal litigation (as he’s doing now) when the Leveson Inquiry was ongoing. Iirc the royals didn’t bring a suit of their own with regards to the phone hacking, it was part of the inquiry that was set up after news of the world’s phone hacking was discovered. That’s how the transcripts of William’s messages to Kate got out, they were read out in court during this time.

The British media has changed for the better after the Leveson Inquiry, even though it’s not perfect by any means. But they don’t need a spoiled thin-skinned prince who detest the free press trying to change it again.

it's just crazy that his witness statement was so badly written like where are his lawyers?? lol but thank you for clarifying! I have a hard time remembering these type of details.