Foreign state ownership is a systemic threat to a free press
Last week I received an unexpected invitation to meet with Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary. I assumed it was to tell me that the Government was finally going to ask the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to end the uncertainty over the ownership of The Telegraph.
I had raised the issue in the Lords on a number of occasions and was grateful for her courtesy. Instead I was astonished to learn that she had issued a press release announcing that the Government intended to reverse the decision taken by Parliament last year to ban foreign governments from owning or co-owning British newspapers.
Her department, no doubt cheered on by the Foreign Office, had clearly surrendered to the lobbying from sovereign wealth funds, foreign governments and investors and extended the concession for ownership by sovereign wealth funds from 5pc to 15pc and included in that concession any foreign government, however odious their regime.
It was only last year that a cross-party rebellion led by the redoubtable Baroness Stowell resulted in both Houses of Parliament amending primary legislation to place an absolute prohibition on foreign state ownership or control of British newspapers.
A duty was imposed on the Culture Secretary under the amended Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act to block media mergers where a foreign power was deemed to have control or significant influence. Opinion polls showed more than two thirds of the public supported a ban.
This was now to be reversed using secondary legislation. The text of the regulations were not available and it was unclear whether several foreign governments could each own 15pc of any newspaper. The Government says that this would only apply to passive investors, but it is utterly naive to believe that a 15pc holding would not result in a degree of influence.
The CMA takes 15pc as a starting level to consider scrutiny for material influence in takeover bids. This threshold is unarguably a serious undermining of the safeguards Parliament voted for and a cynical manipulation of the statutory instrument which was intended to provide for a 5pc holding for existing sovereign wealth funds.
Allowing foreign governments to hold stakes in national newspapers is a systemic threat to a free press and a free press is a necessary condition for a free country.
We have a saying in Scotland that he who pays the piper calls the tune. Autocratic governments intent on acquiring stakes in our media are seeking influence opportunities not investment opportunities.
Of course they are prepared to pay handsomely to achieve that. If permitted there is a potential unwelcome conflict of interest created between journalists and their employers.
The Government's proposals are not some technical adjustment. They open the door to state-funded media and undermine independent journalism. At a time of great geopolitical upheaval, the Government should be strengthening media independence not trading it away for foreign capital.
Now Parliament must act to reassert the protections enshrined in the legislation and make it clear that foreign governments have no place in ownership of our national media.
Lord Forsyth is chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers and a former Cabinet minister
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