__NOTOC__ Michael Leidig (born 19 April 1965) is a British journalist based in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. He has worked for Austrian and international media in print and broadcast. He is also the owner of CEN, the news wire agency Central European News Ltd. He is the co-founder of the independent freelance journalism initiative the ''Fourth Estate Alliance'' (T4). Central European News has been referred to by

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

as "The King of Bullsh*t News" due to a number of stories that CEN had been selling that Buzzfeed claimed were false. One such story BuzzFeed reported that CEN was selling was that 17 year old

Noa Pothoven Noa Pothoven (8 December 2001 – 2 June 2019) was a Dutch mental health activist and author. Her death at the age of 17 sparked global controversy due to public statements she made about her wish to die, her activism concerning youth mental healt ...

was killed by

euthanasia Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eut ...

, rather than the truth, which was that she had refused to be tube fed. CEN sued BuzzFeed over the story, alleging that it was attempting to damage CEN after it opened offices in London, and when the suit was dismissed, CEN filed an appeal which is under review in a New York Federal Court as of 2019.

Career

Leidig moved to Austria in 1993 to take up a role as a news presenter with the

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

and in 1995 left to start his first agency, CEN. In 1996, he became editor of the monthly English language ''Vienna Reporter'' and in 1995 became editor of a daily Austrian English language newspaper ''Austria Today''. He also produced English language news with a daily English section for ''

Die Presse ''Die Presse'' is a German-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vienna, Austria. It is considered a newspaper of record for Austria. History and profile ''Die Presse'' was first printed on 3 July 1848 as a liberal (libertarian)-bourgeoi ...

'' for several years, later taking over the layout, editorial and writing of a page a day in the ''

Wiener Zeitung ''Wiener Zeitung'' is an Austrian newspaper. It is one of the oldest, still published newspapers in the world. It is the official publication used by the Government of the Republic of Austria for legally-required announcements, such as company r ...

'', the world's oldest still selling newspaper. CEN later launched other online news wire projects such as the ''Austrian Times'' that included an English food guide with Austrian chef Bernie Rieder. In 2008, Leidig met Austrian charity worker Hannes Urban and they were involved in establishing the Austrian charity project ''Journalism Without Borders''. Leidig wrote ''The Girl in the Cellar - The

Natascha Kampusch Natascha Maria Kampusch (born 17 February 1988) is an Austrian author and former talk show host. At the age of 10, on 2 March 1998, she was abducted and held in a secret cellar by her kidnapper Wolfgang Přiklopil for more than eight years, un ...

Story'' that was sold to

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint (trade name), imprint of Hachette (publisher), Hachette. History Early history The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs ...

Libel cases

In 2011 a PR agent for the Kampusch family alleged that Leidig had falsified interviews for his book. The case attracted widespread media attention in Austria and internationally. Leidig won a full apology after an Austrian court ruled that the case brought against him had been "a deliberate attempt to damage sales of the book." In April 2015 Leidig was again accused of producing fake news in two reports by online news portal

. In January 2016 he sued them in a federal court in New York for libel. The case alleges that two articles by BuzzFeed were a deliberate attempt at undermining the news agency which was a major supplier to BuzzFeed's UK rivals. In March 2019, the case was dismissed, on the grounds that "Buzzfeed argues that plaintiffs (Leidig) cannot show the falsity of the allegedly defamatory statements, and thus plaintiffs’ claims must fail. The court agrees."News agency's $11m libel action against Buzzfeed dismissed by US judge
by Dominic Ponsford, at Press Gazette; published March 28, 2019; retrieved March 29, 2019 CEN is currently appealing the decision and has published a book in an attempt to address the criticism and raised questions about BuzzFeed's motivation for attacking CEN.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leidig, Michael British male journalists Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Hull 1965 births