The Daily Telegraph’s incoming owner, German-based media conglomerate Axel Springer, is demanding that its employees now stick to a pro-Israel stance, British journalist Owen Jones has reported, citing a letter circulated among staff.
Earlier this week, the UK government cleared Axel Springer’s £575 million ($778 million) takeover of The Telegraph – a right-leaning newspaper which is at times dubbed the ‘Torygraph’ for its support of the Conservative Party – with the deal expected to close by the end of June. Axel Springer already owns German newspapers Bild and Die Welt as well as Politico.
On Wednesday, Jones reported, citing a Telegraph insider, that CEO Mathias Dopfner had circulated a letter among employees laying out the company’s binding “Essentials.” The first point prioritizes “freedom, freedom of expression, the rule of law, and democracy,” while the second states that “we support the right of Israel to exist and oppose all forms of antisemitism.”
Meanwhile, opposition “to political and religious extremism, as well as all forms of discrimination,” is listed at the very bottom of the “Essentials.”
Jones said that “the description of the Essentials is, frankly, Orwellian,” adding that out of almost 200 countries in the world, only one is mentioned in the document.
He also cited a frustrated Telegraph insider, who argued that “affirming the right of a country committing genocide and ethnic cleansing is more than a little concerning,” adding: “It also raises the question of how any reporting from the paper can be considered factual if that is our core principle.”
According to Jones, the phrase ‘Israel’s right to exist’ has been “repeatedly deployed by Israel’s cheerleaders across the West to justify Israel’s crimes.” He also remarked that “the Essentials do not prohibit racism in general” and that there “is no explicit rejection of Islamophobia.” The journalist also suggested that Dopfner was deliberately blurring the lines between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel’s actions – including devastating strikes in Gaza and Lebanon.
Dopfner – a self-described “non-Jewish Zionist” – has made no effort to conceal his political views. In October 2023, after Hamas’ attack on Israel, he wrote an op-ed for Politico saying that “the chant ‘From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free’" is tantamount to calls for genocide of the Israelis.
In 2025, he said it was “surprising that Israel is not being celebrated worldwide for its historic strikes” on the Iranian nuclear program while fuming over what he described as “anti-Israel propaganda” in media coverage of the attacks.
In addition, a Die Zeit investigation claimed, citing leaked e-mails, that Dopfner once summarized his beliefs by the phrase “Zionism uber alles” (Zionism above all else).