We ended up getting a few photos of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Canucks hockey game on Monday night in Vancouver. They were seated with Marcus Anderson, one of Meghan’s close friends. Every photo I’ve seen of them in Canada shows that they’re still very much in love, that they both enjoy hockey, and that they will continue to go about their business, unbothered by the Salt Island freakshow. Speaking of, Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast painted the Sussexes as putting on a brave face in the wake of their (LOL) “festive humiliation.” Yes, it was super-humiliating for them to see the palace create a false narrative, then spend 72 hours promoting the false narrative and blaming Harry and Meghan for everything. These people are insane.
Speaking of, Prince Harry has so many lawsuits against British media outlets, it’s sometimes difficult for me to keep track of everything. He’s currently part of a larger group of celebrities suing Associated Newspapers Ltd, aka the Mail, for their long-running phone hacking and blagging schemes. Some of those schemes were outed as part of the Leveson Inquiry in 2011-12, as in, the Leveson Inquiry procured evidence that the Mail was, in fact, hacking and using criminal methods to gain information about royals and celebrities. This is a key part of Harry’s case against the Mail. So obviously, dozens of roadblocks are being put up to stop Harry and the others from using the documentation uncovered in the Leveson Inquiry.
The Duke of Sussex’s lawyers are to write to ministers pleading with them to release leaked files that could support claims he was the victim of phone hacking. Prince Harry and six other celebrities have relied on documents Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the publishers of the Daily Mail, submitted to the 2012 Leveson Inquiry to try to prove they were targeted by the newspaper’s journalists.
However, Mr Justice Nicklin, who is hearing their case, had ruled that they could not use leaked copies of confidential documents supplied to the now-concluded inquiry unless a “relevant minister” approved them being made public.
The Duke’s legal team had obtained the files, which included ledgers listing “payments to private investigators” and search agencies after they appeared on an online website six years ago. But only Sir Brian Leveson, the retired judge who headed the inquiry into the media, or the minister now responsible for those stored files have the power to release them.
Documents submitted on Tuesday to the High Court in London reveal the Duke’s lawyers are planning to write to the “relevant minister” – understood to be either James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, or Lucy Frazer, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport – to ask for the files to be officially handed to the lawyers.
In their skeleton arguments placed before the preliminary hearing, the claimants’ lawyers say that because Associated Newspapers refused to release the schedule of payments to them officially they would seek a “variation” of Mr Leveson’s original ruling that those ledgers should remain classified. They add that by writing to the “relevant minister” and obtaining the files they could “avoid… the costly amendment procedure” of rewriting legal arguments which omitted any reference to what it claimed the Leveson ledgers show.
It’s bonkers that the Mail’s whole defense is “we didn’t do it, you can’t prove we did it, you can’t use the documents which prove we did it, maybe we did it but the statute of limitations ran out anyway so legally we didn’t do it.” What’s worse is that the defense is working – I get the impression, over and over, that Harry and David Sherbourne are constantly on the back foot, that they are constantly surprised by the judge being so partial to the Mail’s unhinged arguments.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
- Vancouver, CANADA – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Vancouver Canucks hockey game in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Harry did the ceremonial puck drop and then the pair watched the contest from the owners box. Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 21 NOVEMBER 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- Vancouver, CANADA – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Vancouver Canucks hockey game in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Harry did the ceremonial puck drop and then the pair watched the contest from the owners box. Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 21 NOVEMBER 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- Vancouver, CANADA – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Vancouver Canucks hockey game in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Harry did the ceremonial puck drop and then the pair watched the contest from the owners box. Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 21 NOVEMBER 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- Vancouver, CANADA – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Vancouver Canucks hockey game in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Harry did the ceremonial puck drop and then the pair watched the contest from the owners box. Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 21 NOVEMBER 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- Vancouver, CANADA – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Vancouver Canucks hockey game in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Harry did the ceremonial puck drop and then the pair watched the contest from the owners box. Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 21 NOVEMBER 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Hmmm, I’m hoping this is more of a formality thing. Like the DB is twisting it to sound bad, like all the media did during Meghan’s court case that she eventually won. Hoping hoping hoping bc it’s disheartening to see the DM bs.
I don’t imagine that anybody working in the legal field in the UK is surprised by this type of thing. At least part of the strategy, win or lose, I would think is to expose the secret contracts between the royals and the media and between the government and the media. Why should this type of illegal activity be classified? And, it’s up to ONE minister or a RETIRED judge to decide about the documents? That’s nuts.
Exactly, I’m pretty sure Harry’s lawyers were expecting not to get access to these documents from Leveson. They now need to explore every avenue to try to get this information another way. David Sherborne has been working in this field a long time. He knows what he is doing.
The fix is already in, I see…
I was sure I read that it would be up to Levenson himself to lift the restrictions (should he be inclined if he agrees with the argument put forward for doing so by the claimant’s lawyer). If it’s up to the sitting Home Secretary I think it would be denied because of Tory links to the media.
This was a government investigation the fact that someone has to sue to get permission to use what should be freely available is absolutely unbelievable to me, it screams corruption at every level.
This! It’s insane. Those documents should be accessible by a freedom of information request.
Do they have that law in the U.K.?
One historical constant is how governments always find a way to negate/withhold information so the whole truth never comes out. Between permission roadblocks, redacting, and decades-later release dates, it’s a good bet the real deal about Martin Luther King, Jr and JFK’s assassinations (for example) will never be known. And Diana’s death–jeez, it will be centuries before anyone knows what happened.
Or the normal process of discovery, in a court case, I would think.
There’s “to plead,” as in begging on bended knee, and then there’s “to plead” as in preparing and preparing legal documents. And considering how long Harry and the others have been fighting this, I don’t imagine they would balk at “the costly amendment procedure,” if it were necessary.
David Sherbonne and the other lawyers would have anticipated the possible rulings. Plus, it’s always important to remember that the press never reports on media cases in an impartial way. so take what the Telegraph writes with a pinch of salt.
I bet there are discovery rules in English laws on how to obtain sealed documents.
Look at the Palace mandarins working away behind the scenes to stop Harry and all the claimants getting relevant information for their cases.. Biggest points, Mr Levinson is SIR David NOW, so do we really expect him to do the right thing and go against Charlie and the incandescent one? Cleverly ISN’T, he will also tow the party and Royal line, especially as he has not long been promoted in the tory party and Mss Fraser is a new appointment. So no boat rocking by either of them!, let’s face it, the Royals and the government have been cosying up big time for the last few months!! Discovery should mean bloody discovery, NOT be down to the whims of a retired SIR, and, as they were already part of an enquiry that was ruled IN THE PUBLIC INTERSTS then NOTHING has changed and they still are. Sorry but the judge WAS WRONG with his decision, and if they are not released, then it proves that British justice isn’t blind, it’s as corrupt as the Royals and the press.
He will get the documentation. A couple of MP’s (members of parliament) are also suing (in a different suit). Plus, it’s not just PH there are other big names in suit so it won’t be that easy for the government to say no. (At least this is what I’m hoping).
I won’t be surprised if they don’t get those documents from the Government, after all their relationship to the Mail is the very similar to the one that the BRF has with it. But if I know that I’m sure their lawyers know as well and have planned accordingly.
“Sherborne, representing Harry and other individuals, said in written arguments that there appeared to be “no rationale” for ANL refusing to provide the “plainly relevant” documents at this stage “other than perhaps to score a tactical advantage over the claimants and delay progress of the claims”.
The barrister said that given ANL had described the legal challenges as “preposterous” and said that it has “nothing to hide” it would be “surprising” for the publisher not to provide the material voluntarily.
“The claimants ask, rhetorically, what legitimate reason is there for the defendant not to do so if it genuinely believes that the allegations of unlawful conduct made against it are without foundation, as it has so repeatedly claimed,” Sherborne said. ”
David Sherborne is most definitely NOT on the backfoot. In fact the posturing by Lawyers for ANL shows they are the ones rattled. They know they’ll end up having to give the evidence sooner or later ……. either by handing over the files or through discovery ….. simply by reason that their defence is, ‘we have nothing to hide’. The burden of proof is now on ANL, not Harry and the other claimants.
Also they are probably incandescent because the Judge said ‘the Duke of Sussex and his fellow claimants were due legal fees because the publisher had been “wholly unsuccessful” and failed to deliver a “knockout blow” in its effort to throw out the case’ He also said ‘”I’m interested in better justice, not rough and ready justice’ when ANL said THEY should get damages for the fact the (illegal Leveson) files were handed over to the Harry camp in the first place. The next hearing for fees at least is in March.
cazzie – Agree. I’ve gotten the impression that David Sherborne is one of the few individuals interested in advancing the cause of brit-media accountability, which he has done by incrementally advancing and broadening public knowledge of the facts, one court case at a time. IPSO is a joke. Brit-media ethics are also a joke, as evidenced by Leveson Inquiry that remains unfinished. IMHO the seamy state of brit-media stems largely from its’ inappropriate relations with BRFCo at head.
Tom Sykes is a deeply miserable cow.
As for Harry and Meghan and their love, I think it’s so sweet that after all this time, he still rubs his thumb on her fingers when he holds her hand. I noticed that In the video of them walking at the game
“……………I get the impression, over and over, that Harry and David Sherbourne are constantly on the back foot, that they are constantly surprised by the judge being so partial to the Mail’s unhinged arguments.”
No one, with even the most shallow appreciation of Harry’s grasp of the extent and power of the forces he’s up against, could ever proffer this argument in good faith.
From the time H read that statement back in Sept 2019 in South Africa when he shocked the entire british royal ecosystem in announcing his and M’s legal action against the “powerful” british SHIDTMEDIA, he has ever spoken of or alluded to those powerful forces: in his memoir; in their docuseries; in his book-promo interviews; etc.
Given that the head of the uk judicial system is “The Crown” including the entire Commonwealth of nations that still have the british monarch as their head of state (and in which no court case begins without the lawyers, police and judges swearing to do justice in the name of the british monarch, heirs and successors) is there anyone here who thinks H and his lawyers dont know that the entire apparatus of the british state could conspire against him?
Consider them all and their incestuous relationship: RAVEC/Met Police/RPOs/MI5/MI6/Govt/The Crown….including all the Machiavellians who, as H told us, had over the years taken on to themselves so much power, that now they fancied themselves to be the monarch.
But what I believe he and his lawyers (and the perspicacious amongst us) are counting on, is the fact that britian wants to be seen by the world as a modern, civilized, democratized country. And the world is watching.
Also, we are getting these reports from UK media, who are not very impartial to Harry’s media cases. I am sure if Harry’s team would be leaking about the case, it would look completely different from what we are reading. It isn’t just one media company Harry is fighting against. They are all looking out for each other because if one falls, who knows it will be them next. From the media reports with Meghan case, you would think, she was personally going to jail, not that she would win the case eventually.
Cool, even without these documents, those newspapers would still have to provide how they got private info on Harry and people close to him without hacking phones or other illegal ways. I am sure that Harry and his lawyers are aware of Tory government’s relationship with right-wing tabloid media, so they would have other arguments to prove their case. This is just one way they need to try to get to the bottom of the truth.
https://inforrm.org/2023/11/10/news-high-court-dismisses-daily-mails-summary-judgment-application-in-unlawful-information-gathering-case/#more-55857
This inform blog gives a good summary of the current position. ANL really don’t want to be exposed in court spying on Doreen Lawrence whose lengthy search for justice for her murdered son was championed by them.
Lady Digby – Thanks for that link. Interesting table of media cases.
I was supposed to find this thread open….Why did you close the post on Palestine but not this one? It seems jaded. Because we are more than happy to criticize Israel for killing thousands of children. Blank period. To stay silent makes you implicitly anti Palestinian. #freepalestine