These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias.  They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes.  These sources are generally trustworthy for information, but may require further investigation. See all Left-Center sources.

• Overall we rate the The Independent Left-Center Biased due to story selection that moderately favors the left and High for factual reporting based on proper sourcing of information and a clean fact check record.

Detailed Report

Factual Reporting: HIGH
Country: United Kingdom
World Press Freedom Rank: UK 33/180

History

Founded in 1986, by Newspaper Publishing, The Independent is a daily newspaper from the United Kingdom. The Independent was launched by former Telegraph staffers Andreas Whittam Smith, Matthew Symonds, and Stephen Glover.  It is headquartered in London. In 1990, The Independent on Sunday was launched and edited by Stephen Glover. In 1994, the founders left the paper and Ian Hargreaves became the editor of the paper. A year later Newspaper Publishing was restructured, with Mirror Group and Tony O’Reilly’s Independent News & Media (INM) becoming joint owners of Newspaper Publishing. In 1998, INM took full control of the The Independent. O’Reilly bought out the company for £30m and in 2010 and then Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny Lebedev acquired The Independent. In 2016, the paper moved to a digital-only format. Simon Kelner is currently the editor-in-chief of the Independent titles. Andreas Whittam Smith, the founder of The Independent, has also joined the board of Independent Print Limited. In 2017, Saudi Businessman Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel bought a 30% stake in the Independent online newspaper.

Funded by / Ownership

The Independent is owned by Independent Print Limited, a company owned by the Lebedev family (Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny Lebedev). In 2017, Saudi Businessman Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel bought a 30% stake in the Independent online newspaper. The paper is funded through advertising and subscriptions.

Analysis / Bias

The Independent recently joined up with a media group that has close links to the Saudi royal family to launch websites across the Middle East. Its partnering with a publisher that has strong links to the Saudi government has been criticized by the Guardian.

In review, The Independent tends to publish stories utilizing minimally loaded language in their headlines such as: “Theresa May insists Brexit deal is not dead despite EU leaders refusing to make further concessions”  and US news “Mueller investigation: Special counsel attacks Flynn criticism of FBI interview”. The Independent also republishes news from other credible sources such as the Associated Press: “Five things you didn’t know about Germany’s diesel ban”. In general, most stories favor the left and tend to be sourced properly utilizing credible sources such as USA Today and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

According to a 2017 survey conducted by You Gov UK, The Independent is viewed as having a center-left bias in reporting with 79% saying it was either Center or Left and only 21% saying it leaned right.

A factual search reveals they have not failed a fact check.

Overall we rate the The Independent Left-Center Biased due to story selection that moderately favors the left and High for factual reporting based on proper sourcing of information and a clean fact check record. (5/18/2016) Updated (M. Huitsing 10/24/2019)

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/us