How will Meghan Markle’s court victory affect press freedom?

The fact the court gave such weight to Meghan’s expectation of privacy at all reflects a broader shift in the way people try to suppress reporting they dislike, writes Jasper Jackson

Some will warn the ruling in favour of the Duchess of Sussex marks a blow for press freedom (PA)

Neither the Duchess of Sussex nor the Mail on Sunday has come out of their latest legal battle smelling of roses, but the Mail’s court defeat over the leaked letter from Meghan Markle to her father is a reminder of bigger threats to freedom of speech.

On the duchess’s part, the admission that she had shown her draft of the letter to her and Prince Harry’s communications chief seemed to undermine claims she expected its contents to remain private. She had told Jason Knauf: “Everything I have drafted is with the understanding that it could be leaked, so I have been meticulous in my word choice.”

Any claim to an “expectation of privacy” also wasn’t helped by her apology for misleading the court because she had forgotten ever approving briefings to the authors of a biography about her, Finding Freedom.