Published SourceSource / Evidence Document

Heidi Blake Supplies Mike Leidig’s Direct Contact Details For BuzzFeed Front-Up

This 31 March 2015 email shows Heidi Blake sending Alan White direct contact details for Mike Leidig and CEN, including the Vienna office address, telephone number, 24-hour news mobile number, editor@cen.at and Leidig’s personal Me.com email address. The document is significant because Blake clearly had existing access to Leidig’s contact information and understood the CEN connection, yet the wider BuzzFeed process still appears to have treated the right-to-reply/front-up stage as a managed strategic exercise rather than the obvious direct route of calling or emailing Leidig with the full questions and asking him to answer them. It is particularly relevant when read alongside the earlier document in which Blake forwarded Leidig’s investigation offer after her move from the Sunday Times Insight team to BuzzFeed, because together they show that Blake had both the professional context and the practical contact details needed to open a fuller direct exchange. Leidig later testified that, after publication, he spoke to Blake’s former Sunday Times Insight editor and complained about her involvement, and was told the investigation was already in full swing when she arrived and that she was the “new kid on the block” who could not do anything about it; that testimony should be cross-referenced if used, because this document also shows Blake signing as BuzzFeed UK Investigations Editor and actively supplying contact information during the pre-publication 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

Tags

BuzzFeedCENMike LeidigHeidi BlakeAlan WhiteSunday Times InsightJonathan Calvertcontact detailsright to replyfront-up processBuzzFeed UKInvestigations Editordirect contactpre-publication investigationsource verificationlibel case evidence

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Credit: newsX

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