The British government announced this Wednesday its intention to legislate to prevent the takeover of the kingdom’s newspapers by foreign states, against a backdrop of controversy over the takeover of the conservative daily Daily Telegraph.
The British government announced on Wednesday its intention to legislate to prevent the takeover of British newspapers by foreign states, announced Secretary of State Stephen Parkinson, against a backdrop of controversy over the takeover of the conservative daily Daily Telegraph. The announcement, made in the House of Lords, comes as the government intervened to review the process of selling The Telegraph media group in the name of “the public interest”, facing the prospect of a takeover. controlled by an American-Emirati consortium.
The prospect of such a takeover had raised concerns among conservative MPs, given the ideological proximity to the ruling majority of the newspaper, owned by the Barclay family since 2004, but also among defenders of press freedom . The British bank Lloyds, creditor of the Barclays, put the “The Telegraph” group up for sale last October, which includes the conservative daily The Telegraph and the weekly Spectator, to pay off heavy debts amounting to around 1, 2 billion pounds (1.38 billion euros).
“Passive investor”
But a joint venture between the American fund Redbird and the Abu Dhabi Media Investment Fund (IMI), called Redbird IMI, reached an agreement with the family at the end of 2023 to repay its debt – which has been done since December last – in exchange for taking control of the group. Redbird IMI, however, assured that the Emirati fund would only be a “passive investor”, without reassuring the political class.