Judge rules against Prince Harry in early stage of libel case against Daily Mail publisher

By DANICA KIRKA and BRIAN MELLEY

LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry lost a preliminary round  in his libel case against against the publisher of the Daily Mail tabloid over an article that said he tried to hide his efforts to retain publicly funded protection in the U.K. after walking away from his role as a working member of the royal family. A judge at the High Court in London ruled that Associated Newspapers Ltd. can continue to argue that the story reflected an “honest opinion” about the facts of the case and therefore was not libelous. The publisher, which is the defendant in the case, has a “real prospect” of showing that public statements issued on Harry’s behalf were misleading, the judge wrote in his decision.