Harry loses privacy case

LONDON:

Prince Harry, the estranged younger son of King Charles, and other high-profile British figures on Tuesday lost their privacy lawsuits against the Daily Mail's publisher, in a comprehensive defeat in the royal's last legal battle with the British press.

Harry, who lives in California but by coincidence was in Britain when London's High Court gave its ruling, has brought several legal cases against the British press and has long railed against their alleged abuse of power.

The prince, 41, has long blamed the press for the 1997 Paris car crash that killed his mother, Princess Diana, and compared her treatment to that of his American wife Meghan, holding back tears in the witness box in January as he said the Daily Mail had made Meghan's life "an absolute misery".

He had previously won against the publisher of the Daily Mirror tabloid and settled a claim with Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper arm, but Tuesday's ruling is a significant defeat in his battles with the media.

"His campaign against the other newspaper groups has largely been successful," media lawyer Mark Stephens told Reuters, "but I think it's time to reappraise what the media today is and it's very different to the media of (the time of) Princess Diana."