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Meghan criticises media for choosing 'salacious instead of truthful'

<p>Meghan earlier launched a <strong><a href="https://news.sky.com/story/meghan-wins-high-court-fight-against-mail-newspapers-to-protect-identities-of-five-friends-12042813" target="_blank">legal battle</a></strong> over articles published in the MailOnline and Mail On Sunday, claiming they breached her privacy after they published parts of a letter written to her estranged father.</p><p>Speaking at a virtual event organised by non-profit newsroom The 19th, she said: "There's so much toxicity out there in what's being referred to, my husband and I talk about it often, this economy for attention.</p><p>"That is what is monetisable right now when you're looking at the digital space and media.</p><p>"So if you are just trying to grab someone's attention and keep it you're going for something salacious versus something truthful."</p><p>The duchess said getting to a place where stories are told "through a compassionate or empathetic lens" will "help bind people as a community".</p><p>She added: "You want to have trust in journalism and you want to have trust in what you are reading in the hope that it's fact.</p><p>"We have become so, sadly, comfortable with the idea that we are just getting all this stuff and it becomes noise as opposed to truth and accurate journalism."</p><p>Meghan also said it was "devastating" to return to the US with her husband Prince Harry and see the "state of affairs" it was in.</p> <p>The couple moved from Canada to the US earlier this year and are said to have bought an <strong><a href="https://news.sky.com/story/duke-and-duchess-of-sussex-buy-11m-home-in-santa-barbara-12048454" target="_blank">£11m home</a></strong> in the Californian celebrity hotspot of Santa Barbara.</p><p>Speaking about returning to her home country, Meghan said: "It was so sad to see where our country was in that moment.</p><p>"And if there's any silver lining in that I would say that in the weeks that were happening after the murder of George Floyd, in the peaceful protests you were seeing, in the voices that were coming out, in the way that people were actually owning their role and acknowledging their role that they played, either actively or passively, in the discrimination of other people, specifically of the black community.</p> <p>"It shifted from sadness to a feeling of absolute inspiration because I can see that the tide is turning."</p><p>She said she is now looking forward to "using my voice in a way I haven't been able to of late".</p><p>Meghan and Harry announced earlier this year that they would be distancing themselves from royal life and becoming financially independent.</p><p>They are no longer working members of the monarchy and are no longer known as HRH.</p>