A total of seven public figures have sued the publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper for wiretapping and other violations of privacy protection.
28.3. 14:27•Updated 28.3. 14:28
Prince Harry and singer Elton John attended a high-profile court hearing in London today.
Along with five other public figures, Elton John and Prince Harry have sued Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper, for numerous cases of privacy violations.
Public figures accuse the publisher of, among other things, wiretapping phones, hacking phones to read private messages, cheating, and violating domestic peace.
According to them, both the editors of the newspaper and the private detectives they hired were guilty of the crimes.
The four-day hearings in the case, which is pending at the High Court of Justice in London, began yesterday.
It is a significant trial, as its verdict is believed to affect how the British press treats the country’s public figures.
Prince Harry has long campaigned for the press to leave him and other public figures alone. He is also involved in two other lawsuits, one against the same Daily Mail and the third against the tabloid newspaper Daily Mirror.
He says according to the BBC (you will switch to another service) in his document submitted to the court, that he “lost most of the most important aspects of his teenage years due to these actions”.
According to Harry, “The Associated Newspaper broke promises to improve its operations that the media made to his mother’s princess Diana’s after a tragic death in 1997”.
Associated Newspapers denies the charges. After the hearings, the judge decides whether there are grounds for the charges and whether to take the cases to trial.