Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

The editor-in-chief of the Independent newspaper (which is now online only), is the ex-editor of the tax-avoiding shit-stirring Tory-supporting right-wing anti-NHS anti-woke anti-EU anti-migrant anti-Left Brextremist non-dom billionaire-owned Daily Mail, Geordie Greig.

Concerningly, the Independent’s ownership structure is rather opaque: a 30% stake in the company was sold to a Saudi Arabian businessman Sultan Mohamed Abuljadayel, controlling his stake through an offshore company in the Cayman Islands.

theguardian.com/media/2023/jan…

In 2019, the UK believed a bank with close links to the Saudi state was a part-owner.

Ofcom insisted the newspaper had not changed their coverage of Saudi Arabia following the investment, but a regulatory investigation was blocked after the Govt missed deadlines to intervene.

Since then, multiple foreign-language versions of the Independent have been launched by a Saudi publishing house, all aimed at an audience in the Middle East. There has also been substantial Saudi advertising on the Independent’s website.

The news organisation has insisted that Lebedev’s father, the Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev, who was involved in the 2010 purchase of the now defunct print Independent and is currently under sanctions from the Canadian government, has no ongoing involvement in the website.

Somewhat confusingly, the Independent's 'sister' newspaper, the i', is owned by the tax-avoiding shit-stirring Tory-supporting right-wing anti-woke anti-EU anti-Left Brextremist non-dom billionaire-owned DMGT, along with the Mail & the Metro.

Britain really needs #Leveson2.

In related news, according to arab News, in July last year London’s Evening Standard reported a loss of £14 million over the year, taking its total tally of losses to nearly £70 million within the past five years.

arabnews.com/node/2121126/m…

Owned by the Russian-British businessman Evgeny Lebedev, the free London-based newspaper has undergone major internal restructuring, with the former editor Emily Sheffield - sister-in-law of David Cameron, who tool over after George Osborne in 2020 - resigning after 15 months.

The company also reduced staff numbers by more than a quarter, bringing down its annual loss from the £17 million recorded in 2020.

In 2017-18, Lebedev, who also owns stakes in The Independent newspaper, sold a third of the Evening Standard to an unknown Cayman Islands company.