{"id":143684,"date":"2023-11-25T23:01:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T23:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity-hub.com\/?p=143684"},"modified":"2023-11-25T23:01:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T23:01:08","slug":"rishi-sunak-insists-free-press-is-important-to-our-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity-hub.com\/world-news\/rishi-sunak-insists-free-press-is-important-to-our-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rishi Sunak insists free press is important to our democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>As his Ministers ponder whether to intervene in sale of Telegraph to group part-funded by UAE ruling family&#8230; Rishi Sunak insists a free press and competitive media sector is important to our democracy<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Former Telegraph editor Charles Moore says paper should not be nationalised<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rishi Sunak has emphasised the importance of \u2018a free press and a competitive media sector\u2019, as his Ministers consider whether to intervene in the sale of the Daily Telegraph to a group part-funded by the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n<p>The Prime Minister made the remarks after Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said she was \u2018minded\u2019 to launch a regulatory review of the sale \u2013 on the grounds of protecting \u2018free expression of opinion\u2019 and \u2018accurate presentation of news\u2019 by issuing a public interest intervention notice (PIN).<\/p>\n<p>Asked by The Mail on Sunday whether he was \u2018comfortable\u2019 with the proposed sale of the Telegraph to RedBird IMI \u2013 a US-based fund partly backed by Sheikh Mansour, the deputy prime minister of the UAE and owner of Manchester City FC \u2013 Mr Sunak said: \u2018Having a free press and a competitive media sector is important to our democracy.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u2018The Secretary of State has an obligation to intervene in media transactions where there is a public interest to do so. There is a quite clear process that she follows, a statutory judicial process, and it wouldn\u2019t be right for me to comment on that beyond the general point.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Mr Sunak refused to be drawn on claims that senior figures at the Foreign Office had sought to \u2018take the edge off\u2019 a letter sent by Ms Frazer to RedBird IMI over fears about offending the UAE, which includes Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/25\/21\/78233527-12791105-image-a-47_1700946693302.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Rishi Sunak has emphasised the importance of a free press and competitive media sector to democracy, just as his ministers ponder the sale of the Telegraph to a group part-funded by the UAE&#8217;s ruling family<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/25\/21\/78234281-12791105-image-a-48_1700946869969.jpg\" height=\"385\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Former Telegraph Editor Charles Moore has led criticism of the planned takeover, describing the paper as a \u2018great British institution\u2019 that must not be \u2018nationalised\u2019 \u2013 especially by a state that does not cherish press freedoms<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/25\/22\/78236583-12791105-image-a-80_1700952205130.jpg\" height=\"953\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said she was \u2018minded\u2019 to launch a regulatory review of the sale \u2013 on the grounds of protecting \u2018free expression of opinion\u2019 and \u2018accurate presentation of news\u2019 by issuing a public interest intervention notice (PIN)<\/p>\n<p>Former Telegraph Editor Charles Moore has led criticism of the planned takeover, describing the paper as a \u2018great British institution\u2019 that must not be \u2018nationalised\u2019 \u2013 especially by a state that does not cherish press freedoms.<\/p>\n<p>Lord Moore told the BBC yesterday: \u2018The problem is, to put it very bluntly, that the Daily Telegraph and its other titles would be nationalised. And if we tried to nationalise a newspaper in this country, any newspaper, any national newspaper, it would be regarded as a scandalous interference with press freedom.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018But this is trying to nationalise allowing a foreign government \u2013 which doesn\u2019t really have press freedom and is an autocracy \u2013 to own it, and this would be incompatible with press freedom.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Lord Moore added: \u2018It seems to me obviously bizarre&#8230;that a free newspaper in a free country, a very important national title and a very important magazine, with The Spectator, should fall into such hands. And I don\u2019t blame the Abu Dhabi royal family for trying but I would blame the Government very much if they do allow it.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Fraser Nelson, Editor of The Spectator, told the corporation: \u2018It\u2019s kind of depressing to see us in this awkward situation, but here we are. I mean, there\u2019s a whole bunch of ownership options that could work well, that could work badly. I\u2019ve got no idea.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>There are also a number of other groups bidding to buy the Telegraph, including DMGT, which owns the Mail.<\/p>\n<p>The Times reported yesterday that Mr Sunak is expected to meet Dr Sultan Al Jaber, the chairman of IMI \u2013 which bankrolls RedBird IMI \u2013 when he attends the COP climate change conference on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/25\/22\/78236585-12791105-image-a-81_1700952209206.jpg\" height=\"947\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>RedBird IMI \u2013 a US-based fund partly backed by Sheikh Mansour, the deputy prime minister of the UAE and owner of Manchester City FC has bid to take over the Telegraph<\/p>\n<p>The oil executive is also the UAE-appointed president of COP28. Between 2015 and 2020 he was head of the UAE\u2019s National Media Council, during which time Amnesty International criticised him for \u2018exercising strict control over local and international media\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>No 10 insisted there were no plans for the Prime Minister to have a bilateral meeting with Al Jaber and said that if they did meet he would not discuss the deal.<\/p>\n<p>RedBird IMI is understood to have hired lobbying firm Flint Global, set up by former Ofcom boss Ed Richards, for their bid. In September, Flint Global employee Adam Atashzai, was hired by No 10 as a special adviser, having previously worked for David Cameron when he was Prime Minister.<\/p>\n<p>Flint\u2019s co-founder and managing partner, Simon Fraser, served as permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office and head of the Diplomatic Service from 2010 to 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Zucker, the former CNN boss who as head of RedBird IMI is leading the bid, has promised to create an editorial advisory board to uphold the independence of both the Telegraph and Spectator.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12791105\/As-Ministers-ponder-intervene-sale-Telegraph-group-funded-UAE-ruling-family-Rishi-Sunak-insists-free-press-competitive-media-sector-important-democracy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As his Ministers ponder whether to intervene in sale of Telegraph to group part-funded by UAE ruling family&#8230; Rishi Sunak insists a free press and competitive media sector is important to our democracy Former Telegraph editor Charles Moore says paper should not be nationalised Rishi Sunak has emphasised the importance of \u2018a free press and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rishi Sunak insists free press is important to our democracy - Celebrity-hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/celebrity-hub.com\/world-news\/rishi-sunak-insists-free-press-is-important-to-our-democracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rishi Sunak insists free press is important to our democracy - Celebrity-hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As his Ministers ponder whether to intervene in sale of Telegraph to group part-funded by UAE ruling family&#8230; 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