Heidi Blake Shares Mike Leidig Investigation Offer With Alan White But Not Tom Phillips

This 25 March 2015 email chain shows Heidi Blake forwarding Alan White and Robert Colvile an earlier exchange with Mike Leidig about possible investigative material for BuzzFeed. Blake says, “In confidence dug out this email from Leidig”, explaining that Leidig had spoken to her the previous year about a child-trafficking investigation and had followed up through LinkedIn after her move from The Sunday Times Insight team to BuzzFeed. Leidig’s forwarded email says CEN already did “a lot of work for BuzzFeed”, but mostly tabloid material that funded other reporting, and says he would be happy to work for free on the right investigation if it helped build the reputation of the work. The document is significant because Blake sends the material to Alan White and Robert Colvile, but not to Tom Phillips, even though White immediately asks whether he can show it to Tom because Tom was “going to be co-bylined”. That omission is worth noting because Phillips was supposed to be one of the central editorial figures on the CEN piece, yet this potentially complicating context — Leidig’s previous professional approach to Blake, his investigative work, his Sunday Times Insight connection, and his explanation of the role of tabloid material in funding investigations — was initially circulated without him. The exchange also shows White recognising that the “tenor” of the piece could change once BuzzFeed approached Leidig, which makes the handling of this background material especially relevant to the fairness and right-to-reply process.

Source

Part of Central European News & Mike Leidig v BuzzFeed (US Second Circuit Libel Case) – BF Case Documents

Europe Media Published 1 May 2026 at 21:09 Source: 1 November 2016