BuzzFeed Buys CEN China River Fire Story At Standard Rate Before Later CEN Allegations

This March–April 2014 email chain records BuzzFeed picture editor Matthew Tucker agreeing to buy a CEN picture story headed “River So Polluted It Catches Fire” at BuzzFeed’s standard story rate, with CEN later forwarding the usage internally as “this one 50 GBP.” The forwarded CEN alert includes the underlying copy, image reference and story text about a polluted river in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, eastern China, catching fire after a cigarette was reportedly thrown into the water. The document is significant because it shows BuzzFeed purchasing and recording use of CEN material in the ordinary course of editorial business in March 2014, including exactly the kind of unusual China-based viral picture story that later formed part of BuzzFeed’s wider critique of CEN’s output. In the wider evidence chain, it should be read alongside the other BuzzFeed/CEN licensing, alert and rights-clearance records, because it helps document BuzzFeed’s practical use of CEN content before the later allegations hardened. It is especially useful because BuzzFeed was not merely receiving CEN alerts or asking to be added to mailing lists: it was actively buying the material, recording the purchase and paying the agency’s agreed story rate.

Source

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

europe Media newsX Community Interest Company Published 3 May 2026 at 13:43 Source: 16 July 2016