The Daily Telegraph\u2019s chief political commentator has resigned and launched a blistering attack on the paper\u2019s management and owners over its lack of coverage of the HSBC tax story, which he described as a \u201cfraud on its readers\u201d.<\/p>\n
Peter Oborne, associate editor of the Spectator and a familiar face on Channel 4 Dispatches documentaries, claimed the paper deliberately suppressed stories about the banking giant, including last week\u2019s revelations that its Swiss subsidiary helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars in assets, in order to keep its valuable advertising account.<\/p>\n
He said it was a \u201cmost sinister development\u201d at the broadsheet title, which he described as \u201cthe most important conservative-leaning newspaper in Britain\u201d, but where he alleged the traditional distinction between the advertising and editorial departments had collapsed.<\/p>\n
Oborne claimed it was a pattern that could be seen elsewhere in the paper\u2019s reporting, including its coverage of last year\u2019s protests in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
Oborne said the Telegraph\u2019s coverage of HSBC, by putting the interests of a major international bank above its duty to report the news, was a \u201cform of fraud on its readers\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are great issues here. They go to the heart of our democracy, and can no longer be ignored,\u201d he said in an article on the open Democracy website.<\/p>\n
Oborne said the paper had discouraged stories critical of HSBC since the start of 2013, when the bank suspended its advertising with the paper following a Telegraph investigation into accounts held with HSBC in Jersey. He said one former Telegraph executive told him HSBC was \u201cthe advertiser you literally cannot afford to offend\u201d.<\/p>\n
A later joint investigation into HSBC by the Guardian, the BBC, Le Monde and other media outlets revealed earlier this month that its Swiss banking arm had helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets, doling out bundles of untraceable cash and advising clients on how to circumvent domestic tax authorities.<\/p>\n
Before the latest HSBC revelations were published, and while discussions were continuing over the material, the bank put its advertising with the Guardian\u2019s parent company, Guardian News and Media, \u201con pause\u201d.<\/p>\n
HSBC – the advertiser you literally cannot afford to offend<\/p>\n
Telegraph executive<\/p>\n
Oborne said he had told Murdoch MacLennan, the chief executive of the paper\u2019s parent company, the Telegraph Media Group, that he was resigning in December last year. He said he had intended to leave quietly, but had a \u201cduty to make all this public\u201d following the Telegraph\u2019s HSBC coverage, which \u201cneeded a microscope to find\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Telegraph\u2019s recent coverage of HSBC amounts to a form of fraud on its readers,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has been placing what it perceives to be the interests of a major international bank above its duty to bring the news to Telegraph readers. There is only one word to describe this situation: terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Telegraph spokesperson said: \u201cLike any other business, we never comment on individual commercial relationships, but our policy is absolutely clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe aim to provide all our commercial partners with a range of advertising solutions, but the distinction between advertising and our award-winning editorial operation has always been fundamental to our business. We utterly refute any allegation to the contrary. It is a matter of huge regret that Peter Oborne, for nearly five years a contributor to the Telegraph, should have launched such an astonishing and unfounded attack, full of inaccuracy and innuendo, on his own paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oborne, who joined the Telegraph from the Daily Mail five years ago, accused it of a \u201ccollapse in standards\u201d under its owners, the Barclay brothers, the reclusive multi-millionaire owners of the Ritz hotel, who bought it in 2004.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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