|
 Grant, who is known internationally for roles in films such as
"Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill", won
substantial damages from MGN and will donate them to Hacked Off,
a group that campaigns against press intrusion.
Grant was one of the highest profile victims of phone-hacking by
reporters, a practice that became widespread at some of
Britain's fiercely competitive tabloids but was exposed during a
major scandal in 2011.
Most of the focus at the time was on the News of the World, a
Sunday tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch which the media mogul
shut down at the height of the scandal.
Later, it emerged that phone-hacking had also occurred at the
Sun, another Murdoch title, and at the Daily Mirror, Sunday
Mirror and Sunday People, all owned by MGN which is part of
Trinity Mirror.
"This newspaper group has misled the public and its shareholders
for many years; and it has let down its readers and its
hard-working journalists," Grant said in a statement after his
lawyers announced in court that the case had been settled.
"Those journalists have paid the price for the wrongdoing of
executives who have left with large pay-offs and share options,"
he said, naming several former editors of the three Trinity
Mirror titles.
During a short hearing to inform the London High Court that the
case had been settled, a lawyer for MGN said the company
acknowledged phone-hacking was morally wrong and deeply
regretted the acts of its former employees.
[to top of second column] |
"MGN accepts that the unlawful interception of voicemail messages
and procurement of private information about the Claimant and others
should never have happened," the lawyer said.
A Trinity Mirror spokesman said the company had no further comment
beyond what was said in court.
Grant's complaint related not just to phone-hacking but also to
surveillance and blagging, a method whereby reporters would pose as
other people to coax private information out of sources who did not
realize they were speaking to the press.
Grant's lawyer told the court that one of his main reasons for
pursuing the legal claim against MGN was to expose the truth about
what she called "Trinity Mirror's concealment of its wrongdoing".
As part of the settlement, MGN admitted that "senior employees,
including executives, editors and journalists, condoned, encouraged
or actively turned a blind eye to the widespread culture of unlawful
information gathering activities at all three of its newspapers for
many years".
(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Catherine Evans)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
