Category Archives: Daily Telegraph

Essex police defend their investigation of Allison Pearson tweet

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Force says Telegraph writer accused of inciting racial hatred, rather than committing a non-crime hate incident as she had claimed

Essex police have defended their decision to investigate the Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson over a social media post, saying she is accused of “inciting racial hatred” not of committing a “non-crime hate incident”, as she had claimed.

The row over Pearson’s tweet has been splashed across the front pages of the Times, Telegraph and Mail this week. Leading figures on the right, including the new leader of the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch, and the former prime minister Boris Johnson, have leapt to her defence.

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Efune insists his Daily and Sunday Telegraph bid is still on track

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Asset manager Oaktree out of running as backer but businessman has ‘high confidence’ he will get finance

The British owner of the New York Sun has said his £550m offer to buy the Daily and Sunday Telegraph is still on track, despite a big potential backer not joining the bid.

Dovid Efune entered exclusive talks to buy the Telegraph titles last month after submitting the highest bid in the second round of the auction for the titles.

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Washington Post: Telegraph veteran to take over from Sally Buzbee as executive editor

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First woman in the role to be replaced by Telegraph deputy editor, Robert Winnett

A veteran of the UK’s Daily Telegraph is to become executive editor of the Washington Post, replacing Sally Buzbee, who is stepping down after three years at the top of one of the US’s most respected news brands.

Buzbee, the first woman to hold the post, will be initially replaced by the former Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Matt Murray, until this autumn’s presidential election. Robert Winnett, currently the deputy editor of the Telegraph Media Group, will then take over the role.

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UK government was ‘scared’, says man behind failed UAE-backed Telegraph bid

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RedBird IMI deal effectively killed by new legislation blocking foreign states from owning UK newspapers

The former CNN executive who fronted a failed bid for the Telegraph newspaper by a UAE-backed consortium has suggested the government was not willing to listen to assurances about editorial neutrality.

Jeff Zucker said there were figures in the UK who were “scared” of the £600m deal, which would have seen the Abu Dhabi-backed consortium, RedBird IMI, take control of the Telegraph and Spectator.

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‘I’m Jewish and feel totally safe marching for Gaza’: London protesters defy Sunak’s ‘extremist’ slur

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Marchers on Saturday came from wide range of backgrounds as rightwing press characterises city as ‘no-go zone for Jews’

As on previous Saturdays in the past six months, there were two marches taking place in London yesterday. The first, a gathering of tens of thousands of full-throated, flag-waving supporters of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza gathered at Hyde Park Corner at noon, and shuffled peaceably and patiently in the sunshine in the direction of the American embassy at Vauxhall, over the river.

The second march was taking place mostly in the imaginations of right-wing commentators and politicians who increasingly choose to see these displays of solidarity with the Palestinian cause only as a provocation and a threat. Following the prime minister’s Downing Street address on 1 March which represented these gatherings as representative of “forces trying to tear apart” our democracy, the latest figure to loud-hailer that version of reality was the government-appointed commissioner for countering extremism, Robin Simcox, who argued on Friday the marches were “a permissive environment for radicalisation”, leading to a hysterical Daily Telegraph front-page headline that read: “London is now a no-go zone for Jews”.

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Telegraph takeover decision put back by fresh inquiry into Barclay family’s UAE-backed deal

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Regulators’ reports on public interest risk now due on 11 March after late change in consortium’s structure prompts further review

A second investigation has been launched into the Barclay family’s deal to transfer control of the Telegraph newspaper group, pushing the deadline for regulators’ reports on the public interest threat it poses by more than six weeks.

The UK government moved swiftly to order the second watchdog inquiry after the Barclays’ UAE-backed consortium partner revealed a last-minute corporate structure change.

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MPs add to pressure on ministers to vet Barclay family’s Telegraph offer

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Call for national security law to be used to investigate proposed deal involving consortium backed by UAE

A group of MPs including the former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith have asked ministers to use national security law to investigate the Barclay family’s proposed deal to give control of the Telegraph to a consortium backed by the United Arab Emirates.

The group of 18 MPs, which also includes Alicia Kearns, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, have written to the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, arguing that the proposed deal poses a “very real potential national security threat”.

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The Telegraph, the autocracy and free speech: can RedBird IMI calm media fears?

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One of the investors bidding for the paper is the vice-president of the UAE, which is ranked far down the press freedom index

The United Arab Emirates has a mixed record on free speech. Detention of journalists is not uncommon and the nation ranked 145th out of 180 countries included in a press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.

Now a member of the ruling elite has set his sights on a UK newspaper whose roots can be traced back more than 100 years before the official creation of the Gulf state.

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UK minister intends to refer Barclay family’s offer for Telegraph to Ofcom

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Government ‘minded to’ issue intervention notice to call in regulator on public interest grounds

The culture secretary intends to ask the media watchdog to examine the Barclay family’s proposed deal to hand control of the Telegraph and the Spectator magazine to an Abu Dhabi-backed consortium.

Lucy Frazer said on Wednesday she was “minded to” call in Ofcom to look at the investment fund’s plans to take over the titles in exchange for repaying £1.15bn of the family’s debts to Lloyds Banking Group.

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Sale of Telegraph newspapers and Spectator kicks off

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Last-ditch attempt by Barclay family to shut down auction with blockbuster £1bn offer thwarted

The sale of the Telegraph newspapers and the Spectator has kicked off, thwarting a last-ditch attempt by the Barclay family to shut down the auction with a blockbuster £1bn offer.

On Friday morning, the boards of the parent companies of Telegraph Media Group (TMG), the parent company of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, and the Spectator said that the advisers Goldman Sachs had launched a sales process for each of the businesses.

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Telegraph Media Group says it will soon reach 1m paying subscribers

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Acquisition of Chelsea Magazine Company titles bumps up figures as newspaper group seeks new owner

The Telegraph’s parent company has insisted it will soon have a million paying subscribers – aided by the decision to buy Classic Boat magazine.

Telegraph Media Group is in the early stages of seeking a new owner after banks wrestled control of the newspaper from the Barclay family early this year.

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Why access to Tory party members is big incentive for owning Daily Telegraph

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Newspaper retains considerable influence among those who will shape the direction of Conservatives

Whoever buys the Daily Telegraph is not just purchasing a historic and profitable newspaper – they are acquiring direct access to Tory party members who will control the future direction of the Conservatives.

Paul Goodman, the editor of ConservativeHome, said the newspaper retained “considerable” influence among the approximately 160,000 card-carrying members of the party’s rank and file who vote in leadership elections and MP selections.

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Rightwing papers backpedal after helping Liz Truss reach No 10

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Outgoing PM won Tory leadership after weeks of supportive stories in the Daily Mail and other outlets

Liz Truss’s hopes of becoming prime minister looked thin in early July. The then-foreign secretary was running a distant third in the Conservative leadership election, with Rishi Sunak and a surging Penny Mordaunt on track to make the final ballot that would be sent to Tory party members.

Supporters of Boris Johnson were not happy. They believed this outcome would pave the way for the coronation of Sunak, the same man who had dethroned Johnson by resigning as chancellor. Interested parties included Paul Dacre, the former Daily Mail editor who had been promised a peerage by Johnson, which he is still hoping to secure.

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Boris Johnson stands to make £5m a year after No 10, say experts

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PM could join lecture circuit and rejoin paper where he complained of ‘chicken feed’ £250,000 salary

Boris Johnson could make more than £5m a year after he leaves Downing Street, experts have estimated.

The figure will be welcome news to a prime minister who is said to regularly complain to friends that he is hard up, citing his second divorce, several children and his reduced income since entering No 10.

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There is ‘no one News Corp view’ on election, head of company’s Australian arm tells staff

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News Corp Australasia executive chairman issues all-staff memo, with scrutiny on election coverage likely to increase

Rupert Murdoch’s Australian lieutenant has told News Corp journalists there is “no one News Corp view” about the election and that individual editors are free to decide which party to endorse.

Executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, said it was important to remember that “electorate issues in Surry Hills differ greatly to those in Broken Hill” and that audiences “expect us to interrogate all parties and all sides”.

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‘Toxic’ Telegraph made me feel ‘nauseous’, says Graham Norton

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BBC chat show presenter explains why he stopped writing advice column

Graham Norton has said he stopped writing for the Daily Telegraph because the newspaper’s recent “toxic” political stances increasingly made him feel “nauseous”.

The BBC One chat show presenter wrote the newspaper’s advice column for 12 years before stepping down without explanation at the end of 2018. Norton has now said he decided to leave the outlet after it defended the likes of US supreme court then-nominee Brett Kavanaugh and published articles by future prime minister Boris Johnson containing falsehoods.

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Philip Green accused of racial, physical and sexual abuse

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Businessman faces string of allegations by employees after injunction is lifted

Philip Green allegedly subjected people working in his business empire to abuse and other inappropriate behaviour that was at times racial, physical and sexual, according to a report.

A host of serious allegations were published on Friday evening by the Daily Telegraph after an injunction obtained by the businessman was lifted.

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Philip Green’s high court action against Telegraph dropped

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Newspaper will now be able to publish allegations of bullying and sexual harassment

The high court has brought Sir Philip Green’s legal action against the Daily Telegraph to an end, with the newspaper saying it will publish allegations of bullying and sexual harassment against the retail tycoon “in the coming days”.

The Topshop boss had been granted a temporary injunction blocking the Daily Telegraph from publishing allegations of misconduct made by five employees, who had all received substantial payments and signed non-disclosure agreements after settling their claims.

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