Proposed law unveiled on Thursday bans foreign states and government officials from holding direct stakes in newspapers The UAE-backed bid for the Telegraph group appears to be dead in the water after the UK published proposed new laws that ban foreign states or government officials from holding any direct stakes in newspaper assets. Foreign states and government officials will be banned from holding any direct stakes in newspaper assets – effectively dealing a death blow to the £600m bid for the Telegraph group from RedBird IMI, the UAE-backed consortium.