The trial with Murdoch’s British tabloids is about to get underway
Murdoch and Fox News settle their defamation suit against The Sun and the Sunday paper, the UK, for $1.5 billion in fines
NPR was the first to break the news of the offer, disclosed by a person who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case directly. A lawyer for Harry and the lawmaker declined to comment as did a spokeswoman for Murdoch’s British newspaper company.
Murdoch decided not two years ago to pay a huge amount of money to settle a defamation suit against Fox News because they lied about 2020 elections. Murdoch’s team made the offer on the eve of the trial and he gave testimony in open court. In that case, Fox made a modest admission that incorrect claims had been made, but Dominion Voting Systems was able to reveal the size of the settlement — the more telling concession.
The presiding judge, Justice Timothy Fancourt, wanted the parties to decide on the offer on Tuesday and he expected the trial to start that afternoon. He reprimanded one of Murdoch’s attorneys for asking to be heard in closed chambers.
Harry and Watson have rejected earlier settlement overtures, instead saying they needed acknowledgements of wrongdoing to end their claims. Damages awarded in court in the U.S. are far larger than those awarded in British courts. If they reject the settlement offer, they will be forced to pay legal costs that exceed the amount of the judgment awarded at trial.
The British hacking scandal has dragged on for many years and involved many people, from the royal family to politicians, celebrities and even crime victims. News UK has paid more than $1.5 billion to settle more than 1,300 complaints against the Sunday paper News of the World and the daily tabloid The Sun. Murdoch apologized for shutting down the News of the World.
Over the years, News UK has never apologized for the criminal activity of The Sun. Murdoch’s paper in 2012 expanded to seven days a week, after closing News World the previous year.
The settlement would enable the Murdoch camp to quash the public presentation of evidence by Harry and Watson’s legal team —evidence meant to show that the Murdoch daily tabloid the Sun also engaged in widespread criminality in its reporting methods.
“I am the last person who can achieve that, and closure for these 1,300 people and families,” Harry told The New York Times last month. “I will be damned if those journalists are going to ruin journalism for everyone, because we depend on it.”
Murdoch and the News UK sued for what it admitted was “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by the Sun”
Through a spokesperson, Lewis and the Post declined to comment. An aide to Bezos did not respond to the request for comment.
While not a defendant, Lewis is cited as participating in efforts to destroy evidence showing News UK’s leaders knew about the crimes their employees were committing on the tabloids’ behalf. Harry and Watson’s legal team also named the former IT director for News UK, who has since risen to be chief technology officer and the head of the Tubi Media Group for Murdoch’s television giant Fox Corp. in New York City, Paul Cheesbrough. He declined comment through a corporate spokesman, and then directed his comments to News UK.
News UK hasn’t produced evidence to support its existence, but the two people denying the plot have denied it. Brown has demanded a criminal investigation from Scotland Yard, which opened a preliminary review to determine whether a full investigation is warranted.
The British tabloid division of Murdoch apologized for its actions toward Harry, his family and Princess Diana, for what it admitted was illegal intrusions on Harry’s privacy from 1996 to 2011.
It acknowledged “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World.” Private investigators working for The Sun were admitted to carrying out unlawful activities.
Murdoch’s company also offered an apology to former Member of Parliament Tom Watson, a senior Labour Party leader who is now a member of the House of Lords, for surveilling him from 2009 to 2011, when he was investigating the Murdoch tabloids in Parliament. The company said it was paying “substantial damages.”
Harry and Watson’s lawyers told the court this month that the litigants were not seeking financial advantage from the case. In an interview with the New York Times, Harry claimed he was looking for truth and accountability.
It was intended by Harry and Watson to give their legal team the ability to present publicly newly secured evidence to make the case that top executives destroyed evidence and lied to police during the height of a phone hacking scandal here more than a decade ago.
