And a deafening silence from the members of the State-approved Press regulator bankrolled by Mosley money which Labour will no longer take
IMPRESS, the Press regulator backed to the tune of £3.8million by Max Mosley, insisted yesterday it is ‘entirely independent’ of him but failed to condemn his racist past.
The State-sponsored watchdog relies on the disgraced tycoon for the vast majority of its funding, which he funnels to it via two charities.
But the regulator’s chief executive Jonathan Heawood claimed Mr Mosley has no sway at the organisation.
‘Impress is entirely independent of the publishers we regulate and the donors who support our work,’ he said in a statement. ‘Our code holds our publishers to high standards.’
However, in a move that appears to undermine this claim, Impress repeatedly failed to criticise Mr Mosley for the vile pamphlet he published, and which was unearthed by the Daily Mail this week. Asked whether he condemned the multi-millionaire’s racism, Mr Heawood took a swipe at IPSO, the independent regulator which regulates the vast majority of major newspapers, and to which Mr Mosley is vehemently opposed.
‘Unlike IPSO, we prohibit racism and all forms of hate speech against vulnerable groups. I personally find racism abhorrent,’ he said. He refused to comment on Mr Mosley directly.
Published in 1961, Mr Mosley’s pamphlet said ‘coloured immigrants’ spread ‘tuberculosis, VD and other terrible diseases’. The leaflet added they should be sent ‘home’ because ‘coloured immigration threatens your children’s health’.
The revelation comes two weeks after Mr Mosley launched a legal bid to restrict reporting about the £3.8million his family trust has spent bankrolling Impress, and to scrub records of his notorious German-themed orgy from history.
His lawyers have demanded that the Mail removes references to the regulator being ‘financed’, ‘funded’, ‘bankrolled’ by, ‘financially reliant’ on or ‘in the pocket’ of Mr Mosley.
He is also using data protection laws to force newspapers to delete any references to his sadomasochistic sex party and never mention it again. The orgy, which involved Mr Mosley and five consensual prostitutes, was exposed by the News of the World in 2008.
Since then, Mr Mosley has made it his personal mission to muzzle the Press.
None of Impress’s ten board members has publicly criticised his behaviour. Here we profile them, giving their response when asked by the Mail to comment.