STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This next story takes us to the U.K., where Prince Harry has agreed to settle his lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch's British tabloids. This ends a long battle to hold the newspapers accountable for invasions of privacy into his life and also the life of his mother, Princess Diana. The deal was announced just before a trial, which NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik was in London to cover. David, welcome.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What happened?
FOLKENFLIK: So you saw a very dramatic thing where the lawyers for Prince Harry and for a veteran British lawmaker named Tom Watson announced they had reached a settlement that had wrapped up what was supposed to be a six-week trial here.
INSKEEP: A six-week trial. Substantial damages, I guess, meaning that Rupert Murdoch will pay substantial damages, we imagine. What were the cases about?
FOLKENFLIK: Got to imagine it's in the many of millions. So this was an instance in which Prince Harry and Watson were alleging a series of things. In Harry's case, what News Corp in Britain acknowledged was that for essentially 15, 16 years, that The Sun tabloid had been engaging in unlawful intrusions into his personal life, getting information. The News of the World - another Sunday tabloid they then closed during the height of the scandal - had, you know, engaged in phone hacking and other unlawful and unwarranted invasion of his privacy.
They essentially apologized to him for going into his personal life in deep and unlawful and insensitive ways, and even reached back to his childhood and to apologizing for the treatment of his mother, Princess Diana, who was essentially hounded by the Murdoch tabloids - as well as their competitors - for most of her adult life. In the case of Tom Watson, they apologized for putting him under surveillance, which, you know, is a rather extraordinary thing because the time period in which they did it was a period in which he was investigating the Murdoch tabloids for this kind of criminality as a senior member of parliament.
INSKEEP: Ah, so they were investigating the investigators, so to speak, or spying on the investigator would be a better way to put it.
FOLKENFLIK: Yeah. Yeah, Tom had an incredible moment where he apologized to his ex-wife for the strain it put on their relationship and their family.
INSKEEP: Wow. What are some of the implications of this case?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, some of them reach into the United States. You know, Will Lewis was a senior executive at News UK, the British newspaper wing. In 2011, as this scandal reached a height, he was accused - along with other executives - of orchestrating a cover-up and essentially destroying evidence, lying to police. They were going to present all this evidence in open court. In a sense, you could imagine Lewis and other executives would breathe a sigh of relief.
But this information, according to Tom Watson, is being conveyed to Scotland Yard. And this morning, in a dramatic press conference outside the courthouse, you know, I was there as he basically called on the Head of Scotland Yard to engage in a full criminal investigation, which has also been pushed for by a former British prime minister, Gordon Brown. So we're going to see whether this is really a few bad days of headlines for Will Lewis, for Murdoch and for some of his executives, or, in fact, that there are longer repercussions that emerge.
INSKEEP: OK, so the civil case is over. Criminal investigations - we don't know. NPR's David Folkenflik in London. Thanks for the update. Really appreciate it.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet.
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