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‘Sussex, lies and videotape’: papers on the
attack over Harry and Meghan documentary
Jim
Waterson
Media
editor
Accusations that the trailer uses misleading editing
are the latest salvo in a bitter war between the royal couple and most UK print
media
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Tue 6 Dec
2022 19.23 GMT
With just
days to go until the Duke and Duchess of Sussex release their Netflix series,
newspapers are turning a documentary about how the media treated the couple
into a story about how the couple are treating the media.
Monday’s
release of a second trailer promoting the show has already led to suggestions of
misleading editing, with several photos and clips taken out of context in the
promotional video for the six-part show entitled Harry and Meghan.
“There’s a
leaking but there’s also planting of stories … It’s a dirty game,” says Prince
Harry in the trailer, as flashbulbs break over a variety of archive and stock
images.
The Sun –
one of the publications singled out in the trailer – ran the story on its front
page under the headline “Sussex, lies and videotape”. While some of the changes
are small – a photo of Harry surrounded by paparazzi was cropped from an old
picture with his ex Chelsy Davy, rather than with Meghan – some are more
unusual. Two pieces of footage showing a scrum of cameras are taken from very
different stories. One is from outside a magistrates court in Sussex where
cameras were waiting to catch the glamour model Katie Price, another is footage
of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen leaving his New York apartment.
Another
shot showing dozens of photographers with long-lens cameras jostling for
position was in reality taken outside a Harry Potter film premiere in 2011. It
is one of the top results for “paparazzi” on a popular stock image website.
Robert
Jobson, the Evening Standard’s royal editor, criticised another dramatic shot
of a photographer’s lens peering down on the couple with their newborn child
Archie. Jobson insisted it was taken with their approval by an accredited press
photographer at Archbishop Tutu’s residence in Cape Town. He tweeted: “Only
three people were in the accredited position. H & M [Harry and Meghan]
agreed the position. I was there.”
This photograph used by @Netflix and Harry and Meghan
to suggest intrusion by the press is a complete travesty. It was taken from a
accredited pool at Archbishop Tutu’s residence in Cape Town. Only 3 people were
in the accredited position. H & M agreed the position. I was there.
pic.twitter.com/nvjznlloLF
— Robert Jobson (@theroyaleditor) December 5, 2022
Chris Ship,
ITV’s royal editor, backed Jobson: “The filming of Archie at Archbishop Tutu’s
residence was highly controlled. And the ITN Productions camera filming the
Sussexes’ Africa documentary was there with their permission. It was not a
media scrum. They spoke to [ITV news anchor] Tom Bradby inside.”
The issue,
in part, is whether this still felt like press intrusion to the couple – even
if it was done with the approval of their then-aides. Netflix declined to
comment on suggestions the footage was misleading.
Because the
show is being made for Netflix – rather than a British television channel – it
is not bound by the UK’s broadcast standards code. Under British rules, which
are overseen by Ofcom, factual programmes “must not materially mislead the
audience” or risk being in breach.
Whether
using stock images of camera scrums to illustrate press intrusion would count
as a material breach of those rules is unclear. But British television
executives live in fear of repeating the BBC’s 2007 mistake, when a misleading
trailer apparently showed Queen Elizabeth II storming out of a photoshoot with
Annie Liebowitz and incident which led to the resignation of BBC One’s
then-controller, Peter Fincham.
It may not
help coverage of the Sussexes that they are currently suing the majority of
British newspaper proprietors on various grounds, having long ago dropped any
pretence that they wish to abide by the traditional rules of royal media
engagement. Harry is bringing phone-hacking cases against both News UK (which
owns the Sun and the Times) and Reach (which owns the Mirror, Express, and
Daily Star). He is also one of a number of prominent individuals who are making
serious allegations against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily
Mail, Mail on Sunday, and MailOnline.
Meghan has
already won a separate legal case against the Mail on Sunday after it published
a private letter she sent to her father. Only the parent companies of the
Guardian, Daily Telegraph, and the Financial Times are not publicly known to be
involved in legal battles with the couple.
On Tuesday,
Harry paused a separate libel battle against the Mail on Sunday. He says a
story they ran about funding for his security team is libellous but the Mail’s
publisher is contesting the claim on the basis the article expressed an “honest
opinion” and did not cause serious reputational harm.
In a sign
of the enormous sums that Harry is willing to spend on these legal cases, the
court heard the royal has already paid £340,000 in legal fees for this single
case and has budgeted up to £1.2m if the case goes to trial. The two sides will
continue negotiations to reach a settlement until 20 January next year – by
which point all six episodes of Harry and Meghan, setting out their views on
the British media – will have been seen by millions.
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