Tribune, a historically significant magazine for Britain’s Labour movement which famously employed George Orwell as its literary editor, has been taken over by the Tunisian founder of a Muslim television channel.
The magazine this week said it was “pleased” with the acquisition by Mohamed Ali Harrath, owner of the Islam Channel, which was fined £40,000 (€47,500) by Ofcom in 2023 for content the broadcasting regulator described as “antisemitic.” Harrath is also the founder of the Tunisian Islamic Front. He was granted refugee status by the UK in 2000 after fleeing his country of birth.
The move is yet another sign of the increasing overlap between the left and political Islam. Indeed, former Tribune editor and long-time columnist Paul Anderson told Press Gazette that it was likely possible because of the “Islamic hard-left alliance”—what he described as “the Jeremy Corbyn factor.”
Anderson added that he was “amazingly angry” about the new ownership, given that “Tribune was always secularist and not connected with organised religion.”
This deal is completely bizarre, and one of the weirdest things to have happened in the history of British media.
Labourist lawyer David Toube added that the move marks “quite a remarkable development,” jibing:
Tribune—the journal of Orwell, of [former Labour leader] Michael Foot—now appears to be under the control of the Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood.
The magazine says it now plans to increase its print frequency, which is currently quarterly, and to “invest in new platforms—including video content, podcasts, and newsletters—to reach broader audiences.”
