UK Curbs on Foreign Media Control Threaten Telegraph Deal (1)

Rishi Sunak’s government is working to ban foreign states from controlling or influencing UK newspapers and news magazines in a move that threatens a UAE-linked group’s deal for the Telegraph newspaper.

Speaking in the House of Lords, Culture Minister Stephen Parkinson said the country would amend its laws to rule out newspaper and magazine deals that involve “ownership, influence or control by foreign states.” He said the target is explicitly “foreign state ownership” and therefore would not rule out foreign companies, such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., from continuing to own UK papers.

The proposal, which is still ...