MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Conservatives secured a convincing victory in the May 7 vote despite public polls projecting a neck-and-neck race. On Monday, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) announced that it had issued the fine after finding that "none of the subscribers had given specific consent to receive that kind of marketing."
"People may well perceive the paper’s editorial content to have a political bias, but when The Telegraph emailed people directly calling for them to vote for a political party, they crossed a line," ICO head of enforcement Steve Eckersley said. "People signed up to The Telegraph’s email service so they could catch up on the news or find out about subjects they were interested in. They did not expect to be told who they should be voting for."
The paper's May 7 letter, authored by editor Chris Evans, read "The Daily Telegraph urges its readers to vote Conservative," defining the vote as the "most important since 1979."
Eew how have you got my email address @Telegraph — I'm not a 'reader' of yours pic.twitter.com/TsSextE7oJ
— Harriet Smart (@harrietlcsmart) May 7, 2015
Founded in 1855 and acquired in 2004 by billionaire twins Sir David Rowat Barclay and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay as part of the Telegraph Media Group (a joint venture between Holyrood Holdings Limited and Press Holdings Ltd.), the paper is known for its conservative editorial line.
Sponsored by the UK Justice Ministry, the ICO is a non-departmental public body that reports directly to the parliament on data protection, privacy, freedom of information and electronic communications.
