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| The Guardian view on Prince Harry’s complaint: the media hunt is wrong The Guardian view on Prince Harry’s complaint: the media hunt is wrong | |
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| Prince Harry’s communications secretary has issued an extraordinary appeal to the press. In a voice that sounds deeply personal, the letter calls on those behind the frenetic coverage of his relationship with the American actor Meghan Markle to “pause and reflect before any further damage is done”. The message is careful, measured and self-aware, but it also lets fall for a moment the protective veil of the royal brand to reveal a man who genuinely worries that, in the face of what is called “a wave of abuse and harassment”, he is failing to protect his new girlfriend against just the kind of press intrusion and harassment that ended in the death of his own mother, Princess Diana. | Prince Harry’s communications secretary has issued an extraordinary appeal to the press. In a voice that sounds deeply personal, the letter calls on those behind the frenetic coverage of his relationship with the American actor Meghan Markle to “pause and reflect before any further damage is done”. The message is careful, measured and self-aware, but it also lets fall for a moment the protective veil of the royal brand to reveal a man who genuinely worries that, in the face of what is called “a wave of abuse and harassment”, he is failing to protect his new girlfriend against just the kind of press intrusion and harassment that ended in the death of his own mother, Princess Diana. |
| In the past week, since news of the relationship broke, journalists have tried to enter Ms Markle’s home illegally, her ex-boyfriend has been offered bribes and her mother has faced a daily fight through photographers to get out of her house. The letter speaks of nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of the press. Barely a month after the end of the life-wrecking career of the so-called “king of the sting”, Mazher Mahmood, convicted of trying to pervert the course of justice in a Sun on Sunday story, the tabloids are back. They are at their old game again of deliberately confusing what is in the public interest with what is interesting to the public. | In the past week, since news of the relationship broke, journalists have tried to enter Ms Markle’s home illegally, her ex-boyfriend has been offered bribes and her mother has faced a daily fight through photographers to get out of her house. The letter speaks of nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of the press. Barely a month after the end of the life-wrecking career of the so-called “king of the sting”, Mazher Mahmood, convicted of trying to pervert the course of justice in a Sun on Sunday story, the tabloids are back. They are at their old game again of deliberately confusing what is in the public interest with what is interesting to the public. |
| The royal family is sparing in its complaints (although the Queen successfully protested at a headline suggesting she was pro-Brexit). As the Harry letter says, the prince has tried to build a professional relationship with journalists, not least in recognition of the public support he receives in a life that is privileged and fortunate as well as purposeful. He makes a fair case, and it should – like his new girlfriend – be respected. | The royal family is sparing in its complaints (although the Queen successfully protested at a headline suggesting she was pro-Brexit). As the Harry letter says, the prince has tried to build a professional relationship with journalists, not least in recognition of the public support he receives in a life that is privileged and fortunate as well as purposeful. He makes a fair case, and it should – like his new girlfriend – be respected. |
| A couple of years ago, the tabloids, like the rest of the press, seemed to be facing severe decline. Yet now it is as if the Leveson inquiry into press ethics that was triggered by the hacking scandal, then extended to cover relationships with politicians and public officials, had never happened. After a series of victories that just a few years ago would have seemed improbable, if not impossible, editorial confidence in the columns of the Mail and the Sun is soaring. First among those victories is the resounding triumph, in their terms, of the Brexit vote; there is the government’s (welcome) resistance to making newspapers not signed up to the one recognised regulator pay libel litigants’ fees, defeated in the Commons although yet to be accepted by the Lords; and most recently, the government’s apparent reluctance to pursue the second part of the Leveson inquiry, held over until criminal proceedings were ended. All these events have liberated tabloid editors’ appetite for the ever more compelling headline. It is the misfortune of Prince Harry and Ms Markle that news of their relationship has broken just as the tabloids are relishing their renewed sense of impunity. | A couple of years ago, the tabloids, like the rest of the press, seemed to be facing severe decline. Yet now it is as if the Leveson inquiry into press ethics that was triggered by the hacking scandal, then extended to cover relationships with politicians and public officials, had never happened. After a series of victories that just a few years ago would have seemed improbable, if not impossible, editorial confidence in the columns of the Mail and the Sun is soaring. First among those victories is the resounding triumph, in their terms, of the Brexit vote; there is the government’s (welcome) resistance to making newspapers not signed up to the one recognised regulator pay libel litigants’ fees, defeated in the Commons although yet to be accepted by the Lords; and most recently, the government’s apparent reluctance to pursue the second part of the Leveson inquiry, held over until criminal proceedings were ended. All these events have liberated tabloid editors’ appetite for the ever more compelling headline. It is the misfortune of Prince Harry and Ms Markle that news of their relationship has broken just as the tabloids are relishing their renewed sense of impunity. |
| These are extraordinary times. It is not only the royals. Many of the institutions that shape the country are caught in the blowback of the years of globalisation and austerity. The EU referendum has shaken parliamentary democracy. The voice of the people, amplified into an angry roar by some newspapers, challenges not the judgment of the courts, but the judges themselves. The government seems unable to understand the need to distance itself from the attacks. Now Prince Harry is deemed fair game for the kind of press behaviour that was supposed never to happen again. The only slight relief is that the prince, horrified in particular by the cruel trolling on social media, has won a whole new following by his defence of Ms Markle, who has a black mother and a white father, against the racism of some commentators. “It is not a game,” said the prince’s letter. He’s right. It is time that Ipso, the new newspaper-backed press regulator (to which the Guardian does not subscribe) showed that it is ready to prove its worth. | These are extraordinary times. It is not only the royals. Many of the institutions that shape the country are caught in the blowback of the years of globalisation and austerity. The EU referendum has shaken parliamentary democracy. The voice of the people, amplified into an angry roar by some newspapers, challenges not the judgment of the courts, but the judges themselves. The government seems unable to understand the need to distance itself from the attacks. Now Prince Harry is deemed fair game for the kind of press behaviour that was supposed never to happen again. The only slight relief is that the prince, horrified in particular by the cruel trolling on social media, has won a whole new following by his defence of Ms Markle, who has a black mother and a white father, against the racism of some commentators. “It is not a game,” said the prince’s letter. He’s right. It is time that Ipso, the new newspaper-backed press regulator (to which the Guardian does not subscribe) showed that it is ready to prove its worth. |