By Michael Holden
LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - A British tabloid began an appeal
on Tuesday against a high court judge's ruling in favour of
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, in her privacy and copyright
action over the publication of a letter she had written to her
estranged father.
Meghan, 40, sued Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the
Mail on Sunday, for printing parts of the letter she wrote to
Thomas Markle in August 2018 three months after her marriage to
Queen Elizabeth's grandson Prince Harry.
Earlier this year, Judge Mark Warby ruled in her favour
without a trial, and said the paper should print a front page
apology and pay her legal bills.
On Tuesday, the paper launched a three-day appeal against
his decision, saying the judge should not have treated the
letter as an "intimate communication" between Meghan and her
father, and had reached wrong conclusions on other issues.
"The letter was crafted specifically with the possibility of
public consumption in mind, because the claimant appreciated Mr
Markle might disclose it to the media," Andrew Caldecott, the
Mail's lawyer, told three of England's most senior judges on the
Court of Appeal.
Meghan wrote the five-page letter to Markle following a
collapse in their relationship in the run-up to her wedding,
which her father missed due to ill health and after he admitted
posing for paparazzi pictures.
The paper, which published extracts in February 2019, also
argued it Markle had a right to respond to comments made by
Meghan's anonymous friends in interviews with the U.S. magazine
People.
"The judge's approach to correction, right of reply and the
wider public interest was we suggest much too narrow and
contrary to authority," Caldecott said, adding Markle wanted the
letter published to put the record straight.
The duchess's lawyers said the appeal should be thrown out
as another trial would allow further invasion of her privacy,
while the Mail would profit from the "media circus that would
inevitably result".
Meghan and Harry's relations with Britain's tabloid press
collapsed after they got married. The couple have said they
would have "zero engagement" with four major British papers,
including the Daily Mail, accusing them of false and invasive
coverage
The couple also cited media intrusion as a major factor in
their decision to step down from royal duties and move to the
United States with baby son Archie last year.
"The world needs reliable, fact-checked, high-quality news.
What The Mail on Sunday and its partner publications do is the
opposite," Meghan said after her earlier court victory.
(Reporting by Michael Holden
Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
