Popular website sued $11 million for defamation by British news agency and founder

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January 27, 2016 4:52 PM

Michael Leidig, a British journalist, founded and runs Central European News, which has launched a US legal action claiming that BuzzFeed’s 7,000-word article deliberately set out to damage its business.

BuzzFeed Website

According to various media reports, popular website, BuzzFeed, is being sued for $11m (£7.7m) by a news agency and its founder over an article titled “The King of Bullsh*t News”.

Michael Leidig, a British journalist, founded and runs Central European News, which has launched a US legal action claiming that BuzzFeed’s 7,000-word article deliberately set out to damage its business.

The article, which was published in April last year, accused the agency of frequently running attention-grabbing stories that are “often inaccurate or downright false”.

CEN and Leidig say that BuzzFeed maliciously intended to damage the news agency so as to “obtain a greater share of the market for viral news in Great Britain and elsewhere around the world”.

Both parties are seeking $5m each, as well as a further $1.04m for lost business opportunities, and further punitive damages.

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“The BuzzFeed story accuses Mr Leidig, an experienced and award-winning journalist, of the worst thing you can accuse a journalist of – fraud,” said Harry Wise, the lawyer representing CEN and Leidig. “It is unfortunate that BuzzFeed refuses to recognise that its story is completely unfounded, and has done terrible damage to Mr Leidig and his company. We look forward to demonstrating those things in court.”

He launched his legal action after failing to get BuzzFeed UK to remove the article.

“I wrote to BuzzFeed’s newly appointed editor Janine Gibson offering to settle this without any money needing to change hands, if they removed the article and apologised,” said Leidig, according to a report by The Guardian UK.

“At that stage it might still have been possible to rescue certain investments and undo the damage. This olive branch was ignored and as BuzzFeed is not regulated by any independent body, the only alternative was to take legal action.”

“We’re aware the suit was filed, but we don’t comment on potential litigation,” said a BuzzFeed spokesman.

CEN also says it lost a “potential high six-figure investment” as a result of the article.

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