Prince Harry wins partial victory in phone-hacking case against MGN newspapers

Britain's High Court has ruled in favour of Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, in a case against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN). He has been awarded £140,600 (approximately $180,000) in damages for phone hacking.

On Friday, presiding judge Justice Timothy Fancourt stated that the "modest" sum was granted considering that MGN played a limited role in the Duke's suffering. Fancourt also clarified that the media group wasn't entirely responsible for all unlawful activities directed at Prince Harry. 

The statement read, "MGN was not responsible for all the unlawful activity that was directed at the Duke, and that a good deal of the oppressive behaviour of the Press towards the Duke over the years was not unlawful at all."

Among the 33 articles scrutinised in the case, the judge found only 15 to be the result of phone hacking or illegal information gathering. Fancourt emphasised that not all published content was a result of voicemail interception, stressing that the claims regarding the remaining 18 articles didn't withstand thorough analysis.

"I consider that his phone was only hacked to a modest extent and that this was probably carefully controlled by certain people at each newspaper," Fancourt said. "There was a tendency for the Duke in his evidence to assume that everything published was the product of voicemail interception because phone hacking was rife within Mirror Group at the time. But phone hacking was not the only journalistic tool at the time, and his claims in relation to the other 18 articles did not stand up to careful analysis."

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The damages were determined to compensate the Duke for the distress caused by proven unlawful activity directed at him and his close associates.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been actively involved in legal battles against media outlets since 2019, with Harry currently engaged in four lawsuits against UK tabloids. He's also part of groups alleging unlawful information gathering at Associated Newspapers Limited, which publishes The Daily Mail, and News Group Newspapers, which publishes The Sun tabloid.