Tulisa Contostavlos, the singer and former judge on television show The X-Factor, has demanded a police investigation of the undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood after a judge sensationally ended a trial in which she was encouraged to obtain drugs for the so-called “Fake Sheikh”.

Perhaps now Mazher Mahmood will be forced to hang up his Dishdasha robes and retire the “Fake Sheikh” disguise on which he has built his reputation over the past 30 years.

David Cameron is likely to face fresh questions about his friendship with former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, recently cleared of charges relating to phone hacking, after it emerged that a retired police horse she was loaned by the Metropolitan Police was allegedly acquired by her partly for the Conservative leader’s use.

The media is agog at the prospect of George Clooney’s imminent marriage to British-Lebanese lawyer Amal Alamuddin but less struck with a matter that is also close to his heart, the unfolding humanitarian disaster in South Sudan.

The Sun claims to be relaxed in dismissing the vociferous “No More Page 3” petition, which stands on the verge of 200,000 signatures.

The BBC has had a “fantastic year”, its director general Tony Hall said today, after 12 months in which the broadcaster has been pilloried by Parliament for misspending on executive pay and wasting £100m on a failed computer project, and when iconic presenters Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall have been jailed after high profile criminal trials.

The Twitter hashtag #gazaunderattack, which emerged as Israel launched Operation Protective Edge against the Palestinian territory earlier this month, was founded on the presumption that news media are failing to report the story.

Rupert Murdoch has stunned the media industry with an audacious bid for the Harry Potter film-maker Time Warner, which would create a near-£90bn global TV and movie behemoth to rival technology and cable TV giants.

Tony Hall, the Director General of the BBC, has been forced to defend himself against accusations of racism made by an MP during a parliamentary inquiry into the future of the broadcast organisation.

Microsoft’s new chief executive, Satya Nadella, announced the deepest cuts in the software giant’s history yesterday, axeing 18,000, or one in seven, of its global staff.

The complex patterns of bright colours adorning gowns made of traditional kente cloth have long been the de riguer tribal statement in Ghana. Now there are fears they are facing extinction due to a British invasion in West African fashion, as they are replaced by the “Obroni Wawu” – the dress of the dead white man.