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The sale of the Telegraph saga goes on.
The sale of the Telegraph saga goes on.
The sale of the Telegraph saga goes on.
Dovid Efune, the British-born publisher of the online-only New York Sun, is vowing to press ahead with his bid to buy the Conservative newspaper, despite a rival deal that appears to give control to a UAE-backed firm.
Efune acquired what was a nearly defunct New York Sun five years ago. Since taking over, he has expanded the Sun’s reporting beyond New York, with a strong presence in Washington as well as in Europe and Israel. The title gained the attention of Donald Trump, who regularly posts its articles on Truth Social, which has helped bolster subscriptions.
But Efune has risen to prominence since joining the race for the Telegraph.
Appearing on Sky News recently, the publisher declared that his “British bid for the Telegraph is alive and well, and not going anywhere.”
He dismissed reports of a finalised sale to RedBird IMI, a US-UAE joint venture, as premature, adding: “If the history of the Telegraph’s ownership saga teaches us anything, it’s that the ownership of the Telegraph and, frankly, any other crown jewel of British public life, will not be determined by means of a press release.”
Efune entered the bidding in late 2023 after submitting the highest second-round offer. A self-described admirer of the Telegraph’s “values-based, principled and constitutionalist” journalism, he has cast himself as a defender of British media independence, arguing that the final decision should involve Parliament, the paper’s staff, and its readership.
“The British public will yet have their say via their elected representatives, the Telegraph’s staff and the Telegraph’s readers will have their say, as will the rest of the British press,” he said.
That message, however, sits awkwardly alongside Efune’s history of inflammatory political commentary. In a series of posts on X, he has claimed Israel would “decapitate” Iran’s leadership through “targeted strikes and close quarter assassinations.”
In a speech in 2023 in New York, he said that when it comes to the Israel-Hamas conflict there is a need to “fight with every report and headline”.
Such remarks sparked concern among Telegraph staff about possible editorial influence.
“We are out of the frying pan into the fire,” one insider commented, adding his tweets are “not the behaviour you want to see from a newspaper proprietor. It compromises everybody by association.”
Efune’s defiant position comes just days after RedBird IMI announced an agreement in principle to take a majority stake in the Telegraph from IMI, the UAE’s state-backed media investment arm. RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale aims to become the controlling shareholder, with IMI retaining a passive stake of up to 15%.
That deal is now possible under a new UK law announced on May 15, which allows state-owned investors, including sovereign wealth funds, to hold up to 15% of British newspaper companies. The move raises the threshold from a previously proposed 5% cap, introduced in response to the backlash against RedBird IMI’s original £600 million bid in 2024, fronted by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, owner of Manchester City FC.
Still, uncertainty lingers over how much cumulative foreign state ownership will be allowed, with peers in the House of Lords warning “where will it end?”
With both bids mired in political and editorial controversy, the future of the Telegraph, Britain’s Conservative mouthpiece, which has endorsed the party at every general election since 1945, remains as turbulent and uncertain than ever.
Right-Wing Watch
Woke bashing of the week – woke-bashing backfires as GB News faces backlash over anti-LGBTQ+ slur
In a moment of poetic justice, GB News is under fire after airing a vile anti-LGBTQ+ remark that sparked hundreds of thousands of complaints and triggered an official investigation by Ofcom.
The controversy centres around the channel’s long-running ‘comedy’ panel show Headliners, where right-wing pundits and comedians discuss the next day’s newspapers and routinely take aim at so-called ‘woke’ culture.
During a January episode, comedian Josh Howie made a comment while discussing a sermon by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who had called on Donald Trump to show compassion for immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.
Quoting the bishop’s statement, Howie sneered:
“I just want to say, that includes paedos, if you’re doing the full inclusion.”
More than 1,200 formal complaints were lodged with Ofcom, alongside a petition from the Good Law Project, signed by over 70,000 people. The petition was delivered to the media regulator, which has confirmed it is investigating the broadcaster – again.
GB News hit back, attempting to frame the controversy as a ‘free speech’ issue.
Its chief executive, Angelos Frangopoulos, said the channel had been “subjected to a coordinated political campaign by far-left pressure groups.”
But the courts have long discredited this kind of rhetoric. The High Court has described the slur linking the LGBTQ+ community with paedophilia as “one of the oldest, most pernicious and most stubbornly ineradicable falsities or myths of homophobia.”
Agustina Oliveri, head of campaigns and communications at the Good Law Project, welcomed the investigation into a “channel of hatred.”
“Ofcom has been letting GB News get away with broadcasting racism, misogyny and homophobia for too long,” Oliveri said. “It’s time for the regulator to do its job and make sure that media barons stop profiting from monetising hate.”
The Good Law Project has since expanded its campaign, urging advertisers to distance themselves from the channel.
Sky, one of GB News’ largest advertisers, has come under pressure, with over 19,800 people emailing CEO Dana Strong demanding that she stops funding hate speech by advertising on the channel.
Even readers of the right-wing Daily Express took aim.
‘Anti-woke’ comedy show sums up all of GB News output,” wrote one commenter in response to the newspaper’s report on Ofcom’s latest investigation into the broadcaster.
Another summed it up: “That is an actual comedy show. Not comedy masquerading as news like GB News output.”
Let’s hope this time, the broadcaster isn’t let off the hook, because, surely, turning hate into entertainment shouldn’t come without consequences.
LGBTQ+ groups call on Ofcom to sanction GB News over homophobic broadcast
A coalition of LGBT+ groups and the Good Law Project have joined forces to urge Ofcom to take action over a homophobic broadcast aired by GB News.
The Good Law Project, LGBT Consortium, TransActual, Trans Media Watch and others made a formal submission to Ofcom’s investigation into GB News.
The submission argues that the regulator should sanction GB News for breaches of the broadcasting code, including failing to protect its audience from harmful material and the proscription of hate speech.
The media regulator opened an investigation into GB News in March after presenter Josh Howie made a homophobic slur linking the LGBTQ+ community to paedophilia.
Discussing a bishop’s sermon urging Donald Trump to “have mercy” on marginalised communities, Howie said that when the bishop’s diocese “talks about the ‘full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons” that “includes paedos, if you’re doing the full inclusion there’.”
More than 70,000 people used an online tool created by the Good Law Project to complain about the homophobic broadcast, making it the biggest complaint Ofcom has ever received. Yet, Paul Marshall’s GB News still stands by the content.
Jo Maugham, executive director of Good Law Project, said this “appalling” broadcast cuts to the heart of British values.
“Britain is a kind country, with kind people, who try to do the right thing,” Maugham said. “We don’t want and we can’t have foreign-funded broadcasters poisoning the national conversation with these ugly lies. Ofcom needs to say ‘Stop’.”
Chair of Trans Media watch, Jane Fae, argued it should be “an open and shut case”.
“Our fear, though,” Fae said, “is that as so many times before, Ofcom will find sufficient wiggle room to allow it to let GB News off with mild censure, and no real consequence.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
Woke bashing of the week – woke-bashing backfires as GB News faces backlash over anti-LGBTQ+ slur
Today
Left Foot Forward News
“That is an actual comedy show. Not comedy masquerading as news like GB News output.”
“That is an actual comedy show. Not comedy masquerading as news like GB News output.”
In a moment of poetic justice, GB News is under fire after airing a vile anti-LGBTQ+ remark that sparked hundreds of thousands of complaints and triggered an official investigation by Ofcom.
The controversy centres around the channel’s long-running ‘comedy’ panel show Headliners, where right-wing pundits and comedians discuss the next day’s newspapers and routinely take aim at so-called ‘woke’ culture.
During a January episode, comedian Josh Howie made a comment while discussing a sermon by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who had called on Donald Trump to show compassion for immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.
Quoting the bishop’s statement, Howie sneered:
“I just want to say, that includes paedos, if you’re doing the full inclusion.”
More than 1,200 formal complaints were lodged with Ofcom, alongside a petition from the Good Law Project, signed by over 70,000 people. The petition was delivered to the media regulator, which has confirmed it is investigating the broadcaster – again.
GB News hit back, attempting to frame the controversy as a ‘free speech’ issue.
Its chief executive, Angelos Frangopoulos, said the channel had been “subjected to a coordinated political campaign by far-left pressure groups.”
But the courts have long discredited this kind of rhetoric. The High Court has described the slur linking the LGBTQ+ community with paedophilia as “one of the oldest, most pernicious and most stubbornly ineradicable falsities or myths of homophobia.”
Agustina Oliveri, head of campaigns and communications at the Good Law Project, welcomed the investigation into a “channel of hatred.”
“Ofcom has been letting GB News get away with broadcasting racism, misogyny and homophobia for too long,” Oliveri said. “It’s time for the regulator to do its job and make sure that media barons stop profiting from monetising hate.”
The Good Law Project has since expanded its campaign, urging advertisers to distance themselves from the channel.
Sky, one of GB News’ largest advertisers, has come under pressure, with over 19,800 people emailing CEO Dana Strong demanding that she stops funding hate speech by advertising on the channel.
Even readers of the right-wing Daily Express took aim.
‘Anti-woke’ comedy show sums up all of GB News output,” wrote one commenter in response to the newspaper’s report on Ofcom’s latest investigation into the broadcaster.
Another summed it up: “That is an actual comedy show. Not comedy masquerading as news like GB News output.”
Let’s hope this time, the broadcaster isn’t let off the hook, because, surely, turning hate into entertainment shouldn’t come without consequences.
LGBTQ+ groups call on Ofcom to sanction GB News over homophobic broadcast
29 May, 2025
Left Foot Forward News
“We can’t have foreign-funded broadcasters poisoning the national conversation with these ugly lies. Ofcom needs to say ‘Stop’.”
“We can’t have foreign-funded broadcasters poisoning the national conversation with these ugly lies. Ofcom needs to say ‘Stop’.”
A coalition of LGBT+ groups and the Good Law Project have joined forces to urge Ofcom to take action over a homophobic broadcast aired by GB News.
The Good Law Project, LGBT Consortium, TransActual, Trans Media Watch and others made a formal submission to Ofcom’s investigation into GB News.
The submission argues that the regulator should sanction GB News for breaches of the broadcasting code, including failing to protect its audience from harmful material and the proscription of hate speech.
The media regulator opened an investigation into GB News in March after presenter Josh Howie made a homophobic slur linking the LGBTQ+ community to paedophilia.
Discussing a bishop’s sermon urging Donald Trump to “have mercy” on marginalised communities, Howie said that when the bishop’s diocese “talks about the ‘full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons” that “includes paedos, if you’re doing the full inclusion there’.”
More than 70,000 people used an online tool created by the Good Law Project to complain about the homophobic broadcast, making it the biggest complaint Ofcom has ever received. Yet, Paul Marshall’s GB News still stands by the content.
Jo Maugham, executive director of Good Law Project, said this “appalling” broadcast cuts to the heart of British values.
“Britain is a kind country, with kind people, who try to do the right thing,” Maugham said. “We don’t want and we can’t have foreign-funded broadcasters poisoning the national conversation with these ugly lies. Ofcom needs to say ‘Stop’.”
Chair of Trans Media watch, Jane Fae, argued it should be “an open and shut case”.
“Our fear, though,” Fae said, “is that as so many times before, Ofcom will find sufficient wiggle room to allow it to let GB News off with mild censure, and no real consequence.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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