LONDON, Dec 5 (BUS) – Britain’s Duchess of Sussex, Meghan, called for an overhaul of tabloids after she won on Thursday a long-running privacy battle with a British newspaper that had published a personal letter she wrote to her. Father’s separation.
The London Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal by the Mail on Sunday against an earlier ruling that it violated Meghan’s privacy and copyright by publishing parts of a letter she wrote to her father Thomas Markle, three months after her wedding to Prince Harry, the Queen. Reuters reported that Elizabeth’s grandson.
In its ruling, the court said that the contents of the letter “were personal and private and not a matter of legitimate public interest.”
“This is a victory not only for me but for anyone who has ever felt afraid to stand up for what is right,” the Duchess said in a statement.
It accused the newspaper of delaying the case to make more headlines and sell more papers, saying the industry’s “harmful practices” needed to be fixed.
The Associated Newspapers, Mail on Sunday, said it was very disappointed with the decision and would consider an appeal to Britain’s High Court.
“It is our strong opinion that a judgment should be rendered only on the basis of evidence tested at trial and not on a summary basis in a highly contested case,” she said.
Meghan wrote the handwritten five-page letter to Markle after their relationship broke down in the run-up to her wedding, which her father missed due to ill health and after he admitted to posing with the paparazzi.
The newspaper, which published excerpts in February 2019, argued that Markle wanted the public to respond to anonymous comments by Meghan’s friends in interviews with the US magazine People she referred to.
A Supreme Court judge ruled in Meghan’s favor in February, concluding that the newspaper should print a front-page apology and pay its legal bills. The newspaper resumed, saying Meghan, 40, wrote the letter knowing it could be published, a suggestion it rejected.
During three days of appeals court hearings last month, the newspaper’s legal team provided a witness statement from former communications chief Jason Knauf that they said questioned her account.
Knauf’s statement also showed that she and Harry discussed providing assistance to the authors of biographies on the couple, something she has previously denied. This led to the Duchess apologizing but saying she had no intention of misleading the court.
The appeals court rejected the newspaper’s arguments and said “Meghan’s unfortunate demise did not affect the outcome”.
“It is difficult to see what evidence can be presented at trial that would change or affect the case,” the three judges said.
The newspaper’s publisher said the article corrected “false notes” from Meghan’s friends and raised other issues of public interest.
“No evidence has been tested in cross-examination, as it should be, particularly when Mr. Knauf’s evidence raises issues of the Duchess’s credibility,” she said.
Meghan and Harry’s relationship with the media quickly soured after their marriage, and they resigned from their official duties last year, citing media interference as one of the main reasons for their decision.
Harry said it’s destroying his mental health, which is why the couple moved to Los Angeles.
Keen on publicity but only on their own terms, critics of the couple said, after they gave an in-depth interview with Oprah Winfrey in March while Meghan appeared last month on the Ellen DeGeneres talk show.
Their refusal to engage with some of Britain’s best-selling tabloids has also generated a slew of negative headlines, with newspapers contradicting Harry as self-serving compared to other members of his family such as the Queen and his older brother Prince William.
“The most important thing is that we collectively are now brave enough to reshape the tabloid industry that makes people cruel, profiting from the lies and pain they create,” Megan said.
MI