Published SourceSource / Evidence Document

Swedish Metro Follow-Up Shows CEN Scrutiny Continuing Through BuzzFeed-Linked Research Network

This 24 June 2015 email chain records Swedish Metro journalist Åsa Larsson contacting Michael Leidig with follow-up questions about CEN/Europics, including bylines, photographer credits, source links and the provenance of specific stories. The document is significant because the inquiry does not appear to sit as a wholly detached, standalone approach: Larsson states that “we’ve previously looked into CEN/Europics-stories”, and she worked at the same Swedish Metro organisation as Jack Werner, BuzzFeed’s later key witness and a fake-news/viral-debunking figure who had worked closely with Craig Silverman. That context matters because it places the email within the wider network of journalists and online debunkers examining CEN/Europics and MailOnline-adjacent material around the BuzzFeed narrative, rather than as an isolated independent inquiry. The commercial background is also relevant: Swedish Metro and the Associated Newspapers/DMGT Metro operation had a history of rivalry over the Metro brand and the UK market, giving Swedish Metro’s interest in MailOnline and UK Metro-related material a wider media-competition context. In the wider evidence chain, the document helps show how questions about standard agency practices — such as publisher byline removal, repackaging of agency copy and source-chain visibility — were folded into a broader post-BuzzFeed scrutiny of CEN, while Leidig’s reply tried to redirect the journalist towards the ordinary mechanics of agency journalism and byline handling.

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

Tags

CENCentral European NewsEuropicsMichael LeidigÅsa LarssonJack WernerCraig SilvermanMetro SwedenSwedish MetroBuzzFeedBuzzFeed witnessViralgranskarenAssociated NewspapersDMGTMailOnlineMetro brand disputeSwedish mediabylinesreporter creditsphotographer creditsagency journalismsource transparencystory provenancemedia rivalryresearch networkonline debunkingpost-publication scrutinyCEN case documentslibel case evidence

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