Prince Harry laments the royals' “silence pact” with the British tabloids

Prince Harry has accused his family of deliberately keeping quiet about wiretapping allegations against British tabloid media and leaving him in the dark about them. "The institution undoubtedly withheld information from me about NGN telephone wiretapping for a long time," the British newspaper The Guardian quoted court documents as saying on Wednesday. By "institution" is meant the royal family.

The younger son of King Charles III. and other celebrities are suing publisher Associated Newspapers ("Daily Mail"). The allegations against the publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) of the US-Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch, which distributes the tabloid “Sun”, among other things, were also discussed.

"There was an agreement between the institution and NGN that we would not address or even discuss the possibility of making claims against NGN until the litigation against them in relation to phone tapping is resolved," it said it further in Harry's written statements.

"The institution has made it clear that we do not need to know anything about phone hacking and I have been made clear that the royal family will not sit on the witness stand because it could open Pandora's box."

The renewed settlement of the 38-year-old prince - who had previously made a name for himself with his revealing biography "Spare" - with the royals could be important: According to the Guardian, one of the reasons why Associated Newspapers still wants to dismiss the celebrities' lawsuit, is the fact that most of the allegations date back many years (1993 to 2018 at the latest) and previously the defendants apparently did not consider them important enough to file a lawsuit earlier, it said.

If Harry now points out that he was left in the dark, this may have an impact on the process. It is still unclear whether any main proceedings will be opened at all. A first hearing has been running in London since Monday, to which the prince surprisingly appeared in person.

Harry and pop star Elton John, his husband David Furnish and others accuse Associated Newspapers of bugging them for years. The publisher emphatically rejects this. The Duke of Sussex has repeatedly expressed his contempt for the tabloid media, which he blames, among other things, for the accidental death of his mother Princess Diana in 1997.

"I am filing this lawsuit because I love my country and remain deeply concerned about Associated's uncontrolled power, influence and criminal activity," Harry testified. "The evidence I have seen shows that the Associated journalists are criminals with journalistic credentials that should concern every single one of us. The British public deserves to know the full extent of this cover-up and I feel it my duty to disclose it.”

Reports in the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday about his private life caused him great sorrow and paranoia as a young man, Harry's statement said.

The head of the company that is said to have carried out the alleged wiretapping rejected all allegations in his statement. Gavin Burrows said in court that neither of the two accused newspapers or their employees had ever asked him to obtain information about the said celebrities.

The trial is scheduled to last until Thursday. However, a decision on the continuation of the process is not expected until a later date.