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Foreign State Ownership of U.K. Newspapers to be Banned

by Will Jones
13 March 2024 5:30 PM

Foreign state control of British news organisations is to be outlawed, in a move by Rishi Sunak to block the attempted UAE-takeover of the Telegraph. The Telegraph has more.

Ministers are expected to reveal an amendment to the Digital Markets Bill on Wednesday afternoon to rule out U.K. newspaper and periodical news magazine mergers involving ownership, influence or control by foreign states.

The bid by RedBird IMI, a fund 75% backed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE Vice President, would not be allowed by law.

However, deals where foreign state funding represented a minority interest not considered to create influence or control could be allowed.

It leaves the door ajar to a restructured bid by RedBird IMI with new non-state partners to reduce the UAE stake.

The wording of the new law is not expected to be published on Wednesday, however, meaning an element of uncertainty remains about exactly which future potential mergers would be affected.

But under the description set to be outlined by Lord Parkinson, the culture minister, it appears that takeovers where the majority owner is a foreign Government would be blocked by law.

Under other legislation the threshold for a stake to be considered controlling is 25%.

Worth reading in full.

Common sense appears to be prevailing. But it shouldn’t have taken the Government so long to have come down clearly on this side of the argument.

Tags: Foreign policyIslamNational SecuritySpectatorTelegraphUAE

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17 Comments
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zebedee
zebedee
1 year ago

During Covid there seemed to be state control of the newspapers only it was the pernicious British government via the advertising spend.

66
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  zebedee

Indeed – which is worse? Hard to say. The British government doesn’t appear to be acting on behalf of the British people and appears to be “follow” directives from “foreign” or “global” entities.

Also what about the BBC? That seems pretty foreign to me, in that it doesn’t share values with me and a lot of others. It’s also controlled by a government.

63
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huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago

Well that’s cleared things up.

Foreign states will not be allowed to take over British news organisations but Foreign organisations are allowed to take over the British government.

Nice and tidy.

90
0
RW
RW
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Chinese sponsorship of UK newspaper will probably also still be allowed. Makes one wonder if the UAE guy perhaps failed to grease the right wheels.

34
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  RW

Brown envelopes? British government? Heaven forbid!

24
0
AethelredTheReadier
AethelredTheReadier
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Not forgetting all the foreign nationals (aka illegal immigrants) taking over British hotels and holiday camps.

28
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  AethelredTheReadier

😀😀😀

5
0
Smudger
Smudger
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

But foreign individuals will still be able to shower them with cash a la Dr Gates presumably.

4
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago

Can anyone in Scotland attest to this? You have ‘Hate Crime Reporting Centres’ moonlighting as sex shops? WTF is this?? 😮

”The Scottish Government has created walk-in snitching centres in every major Scottish city where people can report ‘hate crimes’ under the new Hate Crime and Public Order Act and the one in Glasgow is in a sex shop!

Welcome to Humza Yousaf’s Scotland, where you can go shopping for a dildo and report a ‘hate crime’ at the same time.”

https://twitter.com/toadmeister/status/1767852719761445249

27
-1
RW
RW
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

🙂 🙂

7
0
AethelredTheReadier
AethelredTheReadier
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Condoming innocent people…

16
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  AethelredTheReadier

😀😀😀

4
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Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

I would read between the lines. They obviously see a certain pathway ahead that they aren’t speaking about and they are trying to be a step ahead. It would be nice to think that their strategems represent a well-informed attempt to save our future but it is far from this. Just look at the events of the last five years. You can see the level of capture, which has necessitated a level of ineptitude. The strange spectacle of Joe Biden. At first I was a little perplexed why they even let him out in public. And then it was obvious. He is meant to look that way for a number of reasons foremost among them being the tacit cry for help of the Western mythos. Then you had the mad dog theory of war, look it up. And then the arrrogance of victory of the corporate state showing you what they can get away with. Just soberly look at it all. People with huge fibrous growths in their veins and they don’t seem too troubled about it at all. Surely this suggests a lack of vitality and a fatalism resigned to death of our culture.

13
-1
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago

State ownership or funding of British news organisations (whether they’re foreign states or our own) should be banned. That includes the state funding of the BBC.

23
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Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

There are cliches like ‘the breakdown of the rule of law’. This doesn’t even come close to what is coming. It will come via fifth dimensional warfare on one hand and deepening lassitude among the general public on the other. It might be demoralisation or it might be ill-health and the two will merge into one. You could easily look at the status quo and think that it isn’t even worth bothering with. But that is to give in to the force we oppose. The violinist Jascha Haifetz broke one of his strings during a performance and carried on playing until the end with three strings. Afterwards somebody asked him why he carried on and he said that it is our duty to carry on and try to make something beautiful even with just three strings. Anything less means that you have capitulated.

6
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

The whole discussion is ludicrous given the takeover of local radio in the mid 1990s. Local radio was very important largely because ir was decentralised. We weren’t all born under a Chrstmas tree and as Milan Kunera said, the power of man over tyranny is the power of memory over forgetting,

8
0
Heretic
Heretic
1 year ago

But Foreign Ownership of UK transport, energy, water supplies, steel industry, care homes, government computer systems, supermarkets, and vast tracts of British land, for example, are fine. Well that’s a relief.

Last edited 1 year ago by Heretic
5
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