UK’s Guardian apologises for founders’ slavery links

Agencies | London

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The owner of the British newspaper The Guardian apologized yesterday for the role of its founders in transatlantic slavery and announced a “decade-long program of restorative justice”, following an independent investigation.

The more than two-year “academic review” into the newspaper’s early 19^th-century creation discovered its main founder John Edward Taylor and many of his financial backers had links to slavery, the paper said.

Researchers from the universities of Hull and Nottingham found that Taylor -- a journalist and cotton merchant -- and at least nine of his 11 financial backers had slavery links, primarily through the textile industry.

The Scott Trust, which owns the media group, plans to invest more than £10 million ($12.3 million) into restorative justice, with millions earmarked for “descendant communities linked to the Guardian’s founders,” the paper added.