London - The British ambassador to Berlin has been forced into a humbling backdown after accusing some of Britain's leading newspapers of biased coverage of Germany and European affairs.
Days after issuing a retraction of his remarks to two of the newspapers he criticised, Sir Paul Lever has now sent a letter of regret to a third to ward off a lawsuit for defamation.
He was quoted by Die Welt as saying that "foreign-owned" papers such as the Daily Telegraph were not interested in the "objective truth" but instead promoted an anti-European and anti-German line.
He said the Sun and the Times dailies gave "a portrayal of Germany that is rather dominated by a vocabulary from the war and permeated by a feeling that somehow Britain is under threat."
