BuzzFeed Buys CEN Romanian Statue Story At Usual Rate Before Later CEN Allegations

This April 2014 email chain records BuzzFeed picture editor Matthew Tucker agreeing to use a CEN picture story headed “Bust Breasts Need To Be Reduced Says Culture Ministry” at BuzzFeed’s usual rate, stating: “we’d like to use this for our usual rate, I’ll record the purchase.” The forwarded CEN alert includes the underlying copy and image references for a Romanian story about a bust of the wife of a former president being criticised by the Ministry of Culture because the breasts were considered too large. The document is significant because it shows BuzzFeed actively buying CEN material in the ordinary course of editorial business in April 2014, including exactly the type of unusual, attention-grabbing international story that later formed part of the wider criticism of CEN’s viral output. In the wider evidence chain, it should be read alongside the other BuzzFeed/CEN buying, 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 material passively: it was choosing to use the story, recording the purchase and treating CEN as a normal supplier.

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