Racism, security and media manipulation are still only part of the real story which media are not reporting on, Martin Jay writes.
There’s a lot of aging journalists on the Telegraph getting into a flap about having their entire company taken over by a UAE mega group. A number of older women are worried that the poor track record that the GCC country has will work its way into the London newsroom the moment Abu Dhabi’s vice president has his hands on the British broadsheet, often considered the conservative party’s own newspaper.
Recently, the former head of MI6 made an appeal through media that the government should block the deal, making the point that repressive “despots” should not be allowed to buy British media in the same way that they buy British football clubs. His argument chimes with a number of backbench conservative MPs who are hoping that Rishi Sunak will block the deal on the grounds of security.
Their arguments, on the face of them, seem lame. They fret that the newspaper, which has considerable influence with conservative voters could have its editorial judgment hijacked and be used as a tool by Abu Dhabi to control both the party and its voters.
Far-fetched? Not really. It’s true that the UAE’s two ruling Emirs have big plans about making a splash in key hubs around the world to further their geopolitical interests and to also make money. In many ways it is because buying British media titles seems more effective at getting the leverage that funding local media targeted at the world. The National newspaper, for example, is so bad that even its own journalists can’t bear to read it and the hits on its website plummet each year. This is the price of decades of control by UAE elites who have created such an extreme totalitarian society that local journalists break all the records at self-censorship in a country where most news bulletins start with the main story being what the top royal did or tweeted that day. It’s a business model which has its limitations when reaching out beyond the country’s borders and so snapping up British media at bargain prices is a no-brainer.
But the idea that they won’t interfere with editorial decisions is laughable, even though the deal is fronted by the former CEO of CNN, who, like so many western media big shots, comes to the UAE with a chequered past.
Racism is also a part of why many MPs are against the deal. The idea of brown-skinned Arab sheiks running an institution which once represented core British values of the Conservative Party is hard for many conservative MPs to swallow.
But racism, security and media manipulation are still only part of the real story which media are not reporting on. Dig deeper and you will find that the Mi6 boss is worried about Russian interference. The story of the UAE oil sheik and the Telegraph bid is really all about geopolitics, spying and who your closest friends are. In the UK, our closest friends are of course the Americans. In the UAE, some might argue that Russia is the UAE’s closest friend on the world stage and after the royal welcome Putin got just recently when he flew in to meet the UAE elite, it’s no wonder that the British establishment will be worrying about who is let in the back door when the Telegraph becomes the new toy for the UAE’s vice president. It’s one thing that the Telegraph could influence elections, policy and even who gets to run the Conservative Party; it’s quite another if the strings which are being pulled are connected to Putin. It’s likely that the OFCOM, the UK regulator which has been asked to rule on it, will be swayed by the old boy’s network of Etonians who will arrange for a negative decision to be made.
The huge question is whether the deal will finally be blocked by Rishi Sunak himself who has a murky track record at best of being linked to decisions he and his government makes. This time round though, the CIA and the Pentagon almost certainly are leaning on him to say no to this particular deal. Corruption is at the heart of this story. Corruption on all levels in government. Remarkable really that there are MPs in the House of Commons who can really keep a straight face when talking about how unpalatable it is to have Arab elites buying up such impeccable institutions. Or that even the Telegraph is such a fine herald of sterling journalism that it needs to be saved from the grubby hands of Arab owners who will taint it with their fake news and repressive nature. Britain itself has become so backward and totalitarian that such leaders are making such moves as London becomes less and less foreign to them. After all, we arrest protestors here for merely waving a Palestinian flag, our journalists are risk averse who follow the incumbent’s narrative and our politicians control every line of what’s printed most days in our newspapers. They feel right at home.
Martin Jay is an award-winning British journalist based in Morocco where he is a correspondent for The Daily Mail (UK) who previously reported on the Arab Spring there for CNN, as well as Euronews. From 2012 to 2019 he was based in Beirut where he worked for a number of international media titles including BBC, Al Jazeera, RT, DW, as well as reporting on a freelance basis for the UK’s Daily Mail, The Sunday Times plus TRT World. His career has led him to work in almost 50 countries in Africa, The Middle East and Europe for a host of major media titles. He has lived and worked in Morocco, Belgium, Kenya and Lebanon.