LONDON: The UK announced Wednesday that it plans to bar overseas governments from owning British newspapers, a move that could scupper the contentious Abu Dhabi-led takeover of the Telegraph Media Group.

Stephen Parkinson, a media minister, announced in the upper-chamber House of Lords that the Conservative government would amend proposed legislation so that it “prevents foreign state ownership of newspapers”. A government spokes-person added that the move would “deliver additional protections for a free press, a pillar of our democracy”. It follows pressure over the proposed takeover of the Daily Telegraph newspaper and Spectator magazine by a joint venture 75 percent owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.