Prince Harry hates the tabloid press. According to the Briton The Mirror eavesdropped on him for years for juicy stories in the newspaper. And he doesn’t take that. The prince has filed a lawsuit. But what exactly does he want to achieve with this?
“Harry is een man met een missie”, zegt een bekende van de prins tegenover Vanity Fair. “Hij wil voor eens en altijd de werkwijze van de pers veranderen.”
Met de zaak die Harry tegen uitgever Mirror Group Newspapers is gestart, is hij naar eigen zeggen níét uit op een fikse schadevergoeding – die hij overigens wel eist. De prins wil dat de manier waarop de tabloidpers hun verhalen bij elkaar schrapen veranderd. “Niet alleen bij journalisten moet er wat veranderen”, zegt de prins. “Maar ook bij iedereen die hierbij betrokken was en er indirect voor zorgde dat dit spelletje maar doorging.”
Harry beweert jarenlang telefonisch gehackt te zijn door medewerkers van roddelkrant The Mirror. Dat begon volgens hem toen hij op de middelbare school zat, en eindigde rond 2010. In de rechtbank vertelde de Britse royal dat hij opmerkelijke dingen heeft meegemaakt die erop hinten dat hij inderdaad is afgeluisterd.
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“As a member of the royal family, you get a certain role from the tabloid press,” explains Harry. “In my case it was the playboy prince who likes a drink. Of course with the aim of selling as many newspapers as possible.”
The prince began to behave according to the content of those articles. “Because if it was already black and white, then I might as well have committed the ‘crime’,” says Harry. It caused a downward spiral in his life. “The tabloids challenged me to show certain behavior. For them it meant good sales, but it had a toxic effect on me.”
It also affected his love life. “The tabloids wanted me to be single because it was more interesting. As soon as I had a girlfriend, they published pieces with lies about my relationship. And that relationship often collapsed because of those stories.”
The Mirror says it did not eavesdrop
According to the prince, enough crazy has happened that indicates that he was tapped. “People told me they left a voicemail, but those messages never reached me. At the time I thought it was a technical thing, but now the puzzle pieces are falling into place.”
Harry also suffered from paparazzi during dinners or holidays. While he planned his appointments in the deepest secrecy to prevent that. “But the photographers were there at the right time, in the right place. In retrospect, I realize: that is only possible because they eavesdropped on me.”
He also read private conversations he had with his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy or his brother William later in the newspaper. The Mirror then attributed those quotes to sources from the palace, or to friends of Harry.
After Harry’s testimony, other parties are invited to tell their story. A former editor of The Mirror claims to know nothing about eavesdropping. She does say that before Mirroreditor-in-chief Piers Morgan added information from palace sources to her stories.
Does Harry have a chance?
A ruling is expected later this year. Does Harry have a chance of winning the case? That’s still the question. Although Harry puts forward enough evidence to clearly show that he has been severely bullied by the tabloid media, he cannot prove that he has also been wiretapped.
Lawyers of The Mirror deny that Harry was wiretapped. They do admit to having collected information in an “unlawful manner”. But not in the form of hacking.
Experts also doubt whether Harry can change the way the tabloids work with his case. They say that the tabloids have already moderated their behavior in recent times. And today juice channels in particular play a major role in the negative coverage of famous people.
“Are you relieved or angry if it turns out that no evidence is found?” Harry was asked in court by lawyers from The Mirror. “I don’t quite know what to say to that,” replied the prince. “But no one would want their phone hacked.”
Danja Koeleman is koningshuisspecialist voor NU.nl
Danja volgt voor NU.nl het Nederlandse en buitenlandse royaltynieuws.
2023-06-11 03:00:00
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