Mitali Palnitkar
Published On: December 27, 2021 at 17:10 IST
Duchess Meghan got an Apology ordered by the Court from the British Newspaper ‘The Mail’. The newspaper had published a private letter that Meghan had written to her father after her marriage to Prince Harry.
On December 26, 2021; ‘The Mail’ published a Mea Culpa acknowledging her legal victory by posting the headline “The Duchess of Sussex”.
After the Hearings that took place in the months of January and May 2021, the Court gave the Judgment on the Copyright Infringement claim made by Meghan.
On February 11, 2021; High Court Lord Justice Mark Warby determined that no Trial was needed as the Evidence was overwhelming. Warby stated, “there is no prospect that a different judgment would be reached after a trial.”
“The Court found that Associated Newspapers infringed her Copyright by publishing extracts of her handwritten letter to her father in ‘The Mail’ and in Mail Online. Financial Remedies have been agreed.”
Meghan had written the letter to her father in February 2019 after getting married in 2018. The Associated newspapers contended that Meghan did not hold the Copyright as the sole author of the letter as she was helped by the Palace officials while writing the letter.
The Court dismissed the appeal made by ‘The Mail’ and ruled that “the Duchess had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of letter. Those contents were personal, private and not matters of legitimate public interest.”
Duchess Meghan stated her win as “a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right. While this win is precedent-setting, what matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create.”
Also Read- Right to Privacy in the light of New IT Rules 2021