Prince Harry loses complaint against Mail on Sunday over claims of 'inaccurate reporting'

The UK’s independent press regulator has dismissed a complaint made by Prince Harry against the Mail on Sunday over claims of inaccurate reporting.

The Duke of Sussex lodged a complaint with the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) over a story the newspaper published in April last year claiming Harry had misled the public.

The regulator said on Thursday the Mail on Sunday had not breached accuracy standards.

Separately, Harry’s wife, Meghan is suing the Mail on Sunday for allegedly unlawfully publishing a personal letter she wrote to her estranged father.

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Today is #earthday - an opportunity to learn about, celebrate and continue to safeguard our planet, our home. The above, Their Royal Highnesses in Rotorua, New Zealand. Of the 170 different species originally planted in the early 1900’s, only a handful of species, including these majestic Redwoods, remain today. Next, we invite you to scroll through a series of 8 photos taken by The Duke of Sussex©️DOS sharing his environmental POV including: Africa’s Unicorn, the rhino. These magnificent animals have survived ice ages and giant crocodiles, amongst other things! They have adapted to earth’s changing climate continually for over 30 million years. Yet here we are in 2019 where their biggest threat is us. A critical ecosystem, Botswana’s Okavango Delta sustains millions of people and an abundance of wildlife. Huge bush fires, predominantly started by humans, are altering the entire river system; the ash kills the fish as the flood comes in and the trees that don’t burn become next year’s kindling. Desert lions are critically endangered due partly to human wildlife conflict, habitat encroachment and climate change. 96% of mammals on our 🌍 are either livestock or humans, meaning only 4% remaining are wild animals. Orca and Humpback whale populations are recovering in Norway thanks to the protection of their fisheries. Proof that fishing sustainably can benefit us all. Roughly 3/4 of Guyana is forested, its forests are highly diverse with 1,263 known species of wildlife and 6,409 species of plants. Many countries continue to try and deforest there for the global demand for timber. We all now know the damage plastics are causing to our oceans. Micro plastics are also ending up in our food source, creating not just environmental problems for our planet but medical problems for ourselves too. When a fenced area passes its carrying capacity for elephants, they start to encroach into farmland causing havoc for communities. Here @AfricanParksNetwork relocated 500 Elephants to another park within Malawi to reduce the pressure on human wildlife conflict and create more dispersed tourism. Every one of us can make a difference, not just today but every day. #earthday

A post shared by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (@sussexroyal) on Apr 22, 2019 at 6:54am PDT

Prince Harry is also suing the owners of The Sun and The Mirror over phone hacking claims.

The duke said the Mail’s 2019 report, which had the headline “"Drugged and tethered... what Harry didn’t tell you about those awe-inspiring wildlife photos", was inaccurate because it reported that he had intentionally misled the public.

A gallery posted on the SussexRoyal Instagram on April 22 to highlight Earth Day featured a series of images of wild animals, including one of a rhinoceros with its head resting on a log and, at the end of the series, an elephant with its handler.

The animals had been tranquillised and the elephant had also been tethered as they were being relocated as part of conservation projects.

The Mail re-published the images and reported that they had been purposely edited so the tether on the elephant’s hind leg could not be seen.

At the time, "sources" said the rope was not deliberately edited out but the photo had been cropped that way because of Instagram’s format.

Harry's complaint said the report made out that he had wanted to give the impression that "he was a superior wildlife photographer who had captured the images in dangerous circumstances."

He said the photos had instead been published in support of Earth Day to raise awareness and it was "made clear" in the caption the animals were being relocated as part of conservation efforts so it was not necessary to explicitly say they had been sedated and tethered.

The duke added that an uncropped version of the photograph of the elephant had been published on the Royal Family website in 2016 and was publicly available.

The Mail on Sunday defended their reporting saying Harry had the opportunity to state explicitly the animals in the album had been drugged and tethered but had chosen not to.

It added that some of the Sussex's followers who had commented on the image had highlighted this as an issue.

In its report outlining their decision, IPSO said it did not consider it "significantly misleading" to report that the photographs "did not quite tell the full story and that (Harry) had not explained the circumstances in which the photographs had been taken".

It added that because the newspaper had focused on the publicly available Instagram posts it had not been necessary to contact Harry for comment but it had included a comment from the duke's spokesperson.

"There was no failure to take care not to publish inaccurate information," it added.