Harry & Meghan: Legal Actions against the Media

[Rudolph]

It’s the MoS not the DM, two different newspapers with different editors although they share a parent company. As far as a deterrent, there’s no amount of money that’s going to make a difference. Viscount Rothermere who owns the paper is a billionaire and he’s used to paying out fines.

 

[Curryong]

He may be used to paying out fines but I doubt he enjoys it. And it is the principle of the thing that's at stake. This newspaper group and others who own tabloids are in a dying industry as far as print media is concerned and so they're going down trying to court as much controversy (Clickbait) as they possibly can.

Well now the Sussexes have struck back. Nobody has to put up with the amount of vitriol, reshaping the narrative, changing the story, outright lying etc that this couple have been subjected to since 2016.

 

[Countessmeout]

It’s the MoS not the DM, two different newspapers with different editors although they share a parent company. As far as a deterrent, there’s no amount of money that’s going to make a difference. Viscount Rothermere who owns the paper is a billionaire and he’s used to paying out fines.

Rich men can also be some of the biggest misers you meet. Those who made the fortune from business, don't enjoy throwing their money away on bad business. Getting sued for your articles is not good for business. Just because he is ridiculously rich doesnt mean he wants one of his cash cows to be hurt financially by a law suit.

 

[Jacknch]

I fully support Harry and Meghan taking this action and it is long overdue. As others have said, the timing will not have been under their control - if the solicitors are ready to proceed with the Court application, then it should proceed without delay.

It will be interested to see what possible defence the newspaper in question will come up with because whatever the legalities and moral implications there may be, publishing a letter like this and on such an emotional subject was wrong and cruel.

 

[Hallo girl]

Is it correct that the sections of the letter initially appeared in an American magazine prior to appearing in the MOS?

 

[Queen Claude]

Sections may be an overstatement but the existence of the letter became known as part of the cover story that People Magazine did in February where five friends of Meghan were interviewed.

ETA:

The Truth About Meghan Markle’s Dad — and the Letter She Wrote Him After the Wedding

“After the wedding she wrote him a letter. She’s like, ‘Dad, I’m so heartbroken. I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimizing me through the media so we can repair our relationship.’ Because every time her team has to come to her and fact-check something [he has said], it’s an arrow to the heart. He writes her a really long letter in return, and he closes it by requesting a photo op with her. And she feels like, ‘That’s the opposite of what I’m saying. I’m telling you I don’t want to communicate through the media, and you’re asking me to communicate through the media. Did you hear anything I said?’ It’s almost like they’re ships passing.”

https://people.com/royals/meghan-markle-dad-thomas-markle-letter-after-wedding/

 

[crm2317]

I feel like the timing of this announcement and statement has been very poor, especially after such positive coverage of the visit to Africa.

I totally understand why the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would wish to take this action. My worry is that the press is an untameable beast. That this action will turn them against the couple even more. Despite Harry’s good intentions to protect and defend his wife he could be making the situation worse.

 

[Madame Verseau]

The. Sussex's are on their last engagement and so far DM has given its coverage but it threw in the Range Rover story. The tabloid basically proved Harry's point.

Dad is going to get dragged into this mess. He would have to testify how he got the letter to DM is going to discredit him to protect itself.

 

[Fijiro]

It’s the MoS not the DM, two different newspapers with different editors although they share a parent company. As far as a deterrent, there’s no amount of money that’s going to make a difference. Viscount Rothermere who owns the paper is a billionaire and he’s used to paying out fines.

If, as you say, Viscount Rothermere is "used to paying out fines", to me that means that he is a repeat offender.

 

[wyevale]

The 'Range Rover story' is relevant.. does SA not have access to suitable vehicles ? Certainly it further undermines the couples 'eco-warrior' credentials, already battered by the Private Plane issue.
The case against the tabloid, is imo, entirely credible, and [under copyright law'] and has a good chance of success. But the timing s poor, when the Tour should be centre-stage'.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

Looking forward to see how the court will deal with this issue. The law needs to be respected by everyone. I understand that H&M feel that the campaign against them - partly self inflicted or not - needs to stop. We'll see what the outcome will be.
Of course the lawsuit itself will create tons of headlines that will polarize opinions even more and the tabloids will be looking forward to that.
I did not understand the need to mention Diana again. As we all know, the situation was a lot more complex than to simple mention her in that respect.

 

[Humbugged]

It’s the MoS not the DM, two different newspapers with different editors although they share a parent company. As far as a deterrent, there’s no amount of money that’s going to make a difference. Viscount Rothermere who owns the paper is a billionaire and he’s used to paying out fines.

The Mail Online still has the letter up on it's site

 

[Mbruno]

I feel like the timing of this announcement and statement has been very poor, especially after such positive coverage of the visit to Africa.

I totally understand why the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would wish to take this action. My worry is that the press is an untameable beast. That this action will turn them against the couple even more. Despite Harry’s good intentions to protect and defend his wife he could be making the situation worse.

I agree with the bad timing argument. Couldn't they have waited until they had returned from Africa to announce this lawsuit ?

 

[Ista]

I agree with the bad timing argument. Couldn't they have waited until they had returned from Africa to announce this lawsuit ?

According to the information posted by ACO further up the thread (#1147), apparently not.

It's unfortunate timing, but it looks as though it was delayed as long as it possibly could be.

 

[O-H Anglophile]

I agree with the bad timing argument. Couldn't they have waited until they had returned from Africa to announce this lawsuit ?

Maybe not, at a certain point don't things like this become public in the court system? I'm sure this has been ongoing for awhile now. So it may be a matter that it was either announce it themselves, or have a reporter break the story.

 

[carlota]

oh my... this is never ending, is it? it seems there can't be a month without some sussex drama. and H&M are part of the problem here - they just don't understand that by releasing all these PR comms out they are actually contributing to the problem, rather than helping alleviate it. and their PR team is a disgrace - some common sense needs to be injected in this team (and that includes the sussexes).

meghan has every right to complain about her private letter being published. what is odd is several things:

1. the timing - this letter circulated for the first time ages ago.

2. do they forget that the actual cause of the problem is that meghan's dad released the letter in the first place? maybe they should work on their own family problems before blaming the media. for the daily mail, if they get their hands on such things they will publish them. why don't they clean their dirty laundry privately and address that meghan's family are the ones who are actually harrassing -or as they put it 'bullying' - meghan, before blaming the media? her family are hardly irreproachable - but it is easier to blame the media.

3. if meghan's privacy was compromised, why is harry releasing a statement? can't meghan do it? isn't she all about women empowerment?

on top of it all, the PR release is just ridiculous:

a. harry states: "they have been able to create lie after lie at her expense simply because she has not been visible while on maternity leave." - excuse me, WHAT? kate has not been visible during maternity leave, yet we saw none of this circus.

b. harry states: "I have been a silent witness to her private suffering for too long." well... this 'suffering' is of its own making. there would have been less attacks of H&M if they were more reasonable in playing by the rules. they have bullied the media themselves, reporting that meghan 'had gone on labour' when she had actually given birth and gone home. they kept the christening private, godparents private which is not the done thing. had they been more generous and less snobbish, perhaps the media wouldn't pick on them so much.

c. "I've seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces." - to compare the scrutiny diana went through to meghan's is a huge exageration.

d. "The positive coverage of the past week from these same publications exposes the double standards of this specific press pack that has vilified her almost daily for the past nine months" - does he really want to talk about double standards when one week they were talking about climate change, and the next ones flying on private jets? really?

i am amazed at the incoherence of this all. never in the past year's royal members have operated this badly.


jane barr's blog post hits the nail in the head with her opinion on this blog post (as usual):

Harry's Statement on the Sussexes Lawsuit Against the Daily Mail

 

[Dman]

I agree with the bad timing argument. Couldn't they have waited until they had returned from Africa to announce this lawsuit ?

Timing was never going to be good. The tour is practically over anyway.

 

[alvinking]

I don't understand all the hoopla about time. Neither the Sussexes nor their lawyers control the justice time. Once the suit was filed it goes through the process at the courthouse at own pace. It just happened that the filling was about to become public at this particular moment, so their lawyers and Harry just made their position public in light of they justice timetable.

 

[Dman]

I don't understand all the hoopla about time. Neither the Sussexes nor their lawyers control the justice time. Once the suit was filed it goes through the process at the courthouse at own pace. It just happened that the filling was about to become public at this particular moment, so their lawyers and Harry just made their position public in light of they justice timetable. /QUOTE]

This is very true. They couldn’t control the timing of the lawsuit. I knew this was going to happen. The whole situation was snowballing way out of control.

 

[Rudolph]

The Mail Online still has the letter up on it's site

The Mail Online is another entity again with it’s own editor separate from the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. Because all the titles are owned by the same person there is crossover content though. Individual editors make editorial decisions on what that content is.

 

[Kataryn]

oh my... this is never ending, is it? it seems there can't be a month without some sussex drama. and H&M are part of the problem here - they just don't understand that by releasing all these PR comms out they are actually contributing to the problem, rather than helping alleviate it.

Well, H&M simply exist - if that is a problem for some, it can't be helped. What they do with their own publishing activities is to do something for others, while the media most of the time does something against them. That's quite the difference.



There are so many lies or misinformation floating around - why can't the media accept that these two want to live private lifes when they are not working for the sake of other people?

 

[ACO]

I don't want to twist your words carlota but all I got from your post is that had Harry and Meghan did what the press pack wanted then the attacks on them wouldn't have happened. That is a bit much. I mean that just proves Harry's point.

Also Kate wasn't attacked day in and day put throughput her pregnancies and maternity leave. That was Meghan. So yeah it was a bit quieter in that regard to the Cambridges due to that. I mean even some of the royal correspondents fully admit it has been overboard with Meghan.

Meghan and Harry aren't perfect but overall I have no issue with them suing the MoS and she doesn't have to "fix" anything Markle related. They are not in her life and haven't been for years. The media trying to use them against her is on them.

 

[bertie5252003]

Harry and his wife need to get on they either can sort out her family matters or just ignore them Harry married into a fam=ily that has a lot of issues and that is not a good idea for a Royal Family but he did and now as Thomas Markle asks for the letter to be published Harry refers again to princess Diana which I find appaling.

 

[Pranter]

As if the BRF doesn't have a lot of family issues! No one should be marrying into them if that is your standard!




LaRae

 

[Osipi]

Most likely, as its been stated that this upcoming lawsuit has been in the works for quite a while, Harry and Meghan have had a team of lawyers keeping up with everything happening in the tabloid press. Could very well have even started back around the time of the wedding with the Thomas Markle debacle

The letter Meghan wrote to her father was not only a private communication between the two of them but she also had the the belief that it *was* private and personal and that letter is her own personal intellectual property. Its not a case of what Mr. Markle did with that letter but a legal case against the Mail on Sunday for not only printing it, but "doctoring" it for their own purposes. Its a battle over words that Meghan has authored just as the same happened with Charles' letters.

We have copyright rules here for articles and pictures and they're set in stone to as not to infringe on someone else's intellectual property. We can link to pictures by Getty or such and quote up to 20% of an article along with showing the source (link) to the article itself. With TRF being an international forum, its covering all bases.

There are even international intellectual property laws and groups that focus on it. With Meghan's letter going from the UK to the US and then ending up being looked at by the Sussexs' lawyers on each and every little angle while trying to determine if they had a case or not, it all took time. As stated, the statement by Harry was made as it happened that the filing of the lawsuit was processed through the court and most likely the Mail on Sunday served with papers calling them to court. The statement wasn't just a PR thing Harry did at a time he chose, but a statement released showing intent to sue of which the Mail on Sunday had already been informed. It makes sense for Harry to get it out to the public first before the Mail on Sunday and their lawyers got the upper hand so to speak.

Its made the morning news on our TV show and if my other half is seeing it and asking questions about it and yelling "yellow journalism", then the news of this has really reached the general public. Of course the news show I was watching brings up our old friend, Piers Morgan but it was quickly explained just what motivated the man.

This is going to be a very interesting case to watch but one thing positive that comes out of it even before anyone steps into a courtroom is that the general population who may not have really followed all the garbage that has been thrown at Meghan in the past, is now beginning to see how she's been bullied and tormented by the British tabloid. As I said, if it comes down to my other half actually having an opinion on this matter, its a good thing. He's as interested in following the British royals as I am with following American football.

https://www.upcounsel.com/international-intellectual-property-law

 

[Claricecolin]

There comes a time where the "never complain never explain" thing just doesn't work. I think Harry;yes I think it is Harry more than Meghan in this instance, has had enough. It seems for both Harry and William protecting their families is too priority as it should be. I think Harry still has some unresolved(yet misguided,as he was a child) guilt about not being able to protect his mother. He simply isn't going to allow his wife to be constantly attacked and do nothing.

Will the attacks stop, I doubt it. Actually I expect them to increase. I am optimistic that Harry and Meghan can handle it.

 

[Dman]

I can’t tell you how much it hurt my heart to see Meghan to go through something like this. Although, my hurt can’t be anywhere compared to what she’s privately feeling. I knew she wasn’t going to have an easy time, but I hoped the outside forces would at least act like they had some sense - that they wouldn’t be so cold-blooded towards her. This is devastating, but I know this couple is fighting back and they appreciate the support they’re getting. So, I’m at least happy about that.

 

[Panther2000]

DAMN! There you go Harry! He came out swinging like hell in that letter. I knew one was coming. The outside forces needed to be put in their place.

Same here, I knew something like this was coming. It is about time, even though it was mainly focused on THAT LETTER. I think it is more than just about the letter. This woman was bullied non-stop after the announcement of her expecting. I have never heard or seen such a thing. Going after a expecting Mother at this level. Don't know how the court case will turn out. But, I am so Proud & happy that they are calling people out on their behavior.

Standing O??

 

[Ista]

As I said before, I think this case is going to be very interesting, and it looks as though the Sussexes have a very good chance of winning the case since British law appears to give the writer of a letter copyright over it.

However, unless I am missing something, that is all the court case is about: the misuse and alleged misleading editing of a specific letter, by a single newspaper. It in no way takes on any of the negative press. Harry's letter does, but the court case doesn't seem to be about that, it seems to be much more narrowly focused. I think breaking out the champagne and celebrating that the negative coverage will be a thing of the past, and that more balanced coverage will be the end result is premature. It would be nice, but I'm not seeing that as a foregone conclusion.

Edited to add: I also will observe that it may be possible that the DM may not have even known about the letter to Meghan's father if the "friends" who gave the interviews to People magazine had not mentioned it, so I hope the additional learning here for the Sussexes is to be wary about friends giving interviews about them. I have also wondered about the sequence of events around the interviews and then the publication of the edited letter in the DM. My assumption, which might well be incorrect, was that the interviews tipped off the DM to go digging.

 

[Rudolph]

I find it interesting the MoS have decided to not settle this ‘out of court’ and instead will defend itself vigorously.

But I agree it won’t do anything to reduce the negative coverage but probably just add more fuel to the fire.