Steve Coogan and John Cleese back ads attacking Sun and Mail 'fear and smear'

The online activist group Avaaz is to launch newspaper ads telling voters to ignore rightwing election coverage from Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers and the Daily Mail.

The ad, which features a picture of David Cameron tucked into Rupert Murdoch’s jacket pocket, is backed by the actors Steve Coogan and John Cleese and the writer Irvine Welsh.

The campaign, which is also being backed by Hacked Off, runs with the headline “Vote for who you believe in, not for who he tells you to.”

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It goes on to accuse Britain’s rightwing newspapers – front pages of the Daily Mail and the Sun are shown in the ad – of pushing a “smear and loathing” agenda.

“To all undecided voters in Britain, vote for what’s best for you, for what you believe in – not what’s best for Rupert Murdoch,” the ad says.

Cleese said: “The fear and loathing that has come out of the Mail and the Sun this election has been hard to stomach. The threat of Leveson-style independent self-regulation being imposed on many of these media owners means that they are throwing the kitchen sink at keeping the Conservatives in power. The British public are smart enough to know what to listen to and what to ignore, but this is worrying.”

Avaaz is running the ad in regional newspapers covering marginal seats across Britain, as well as across a range of websites, and will also be promoted by the organisation’s 1.6m British members.

“Rupert Murdoch and the Daily Mail have had British politicians in their top pocket for decades,” said Coogan. “The smear and fear agenda they have peddled over the past few weeks has been pretty shameful. Thankfully we don’t have Fox News on TV, but sadly this election has shown that we do have it in printed form.”