THE TELEGRAPH HAS come under fire today over a story on its front page about rival publisher News UK.
It comes a week after journalist Peter Oborne resigned from The Telegraph, claiming that the paper had committed ‘fraud’ against its readers over its lack of coverage on HSBC.
The front page article, which does not have a byline, claims that News UK, which publishes The Times and the Sun, has launched an internal investigation into the suicides of two of its commercial staff.
The story claims there are fears “staff are being put under unreasonable pressure to hit targets”. It carries recent comments from Times executive Tiffanie Darke made on 18 September about News UK’s bespoke native advertising unit, and closer collaboration between journalists and advertising staff.
When Oborne resigned, he claimed that advertisers in the Telegraph were influencing stories.
The reaction to today’s Telegraph story was criticised by journalists including Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian.
An article published in the Telegraph yesterday accused the Guardian of changing an article to avoid offending Apple – it too was published by ‘Daily Telegraph reporter’.
The Guardian told the Telegraph it is “never the case that editorial content is changed to meet stipulations made by an advertiser”.
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