Alexandra Föderl-Schmid is “temporarily” leaving the editor-in-chief of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. The reason is allegations of plagiarism.
Alexandra Föderl-Schmid was editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper “Der Standard” for ten years before moving to Germany in 2017, where she has been deputy editor-in-chief of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” since 2020. After allegations of plagiarism, she “temporarily” withdrew from day-to-day business on Monday. As “Spiegel” reported, she is said to have plagiarized not only in her journalistic work, but also in her dissertation at the University of Salzburg. At least that’s what the self-proclaimed “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber claims. On Monday, the newspaper “In Own Matter” reported: An external commission had been commissioned to examine the allegations. Föderl-Schmid, in turn, asked the University of Salzburg to examine the dissertation. Until the results are available, she will withdraw from the editor-in-chief.
Allegations from the industry magazine “Medieninsider” had already been made in December 2023. Föderl-Schmid is said to have improperly quoted formulations from other media in some of her texts – in one case even copied them verbatim. A few days later there was a report on statements made at an editorial conference of the “Süddeutsche”. Co-editor-in-chief Wolfgang Krach is said to have criticized the allegations and reactions as slander and an attack on his newspaper.
Looking for the “mole”
On February 2nd, “Medieninsider” published another report about a general meeting of over 100 members of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. The magazine therefore has statements from several people present at the meeting. Apparently it came out at the meeting that the editor-in-chief was looking for a “mole” – an editorial member is said to have leaked information to the “media insider”. With the consent of the works council, the IT department of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” would have searched the work devices of the editorial team members for communication with the “media insider”.
In its statement on Monday, the “Süddeutsche” made it clear that they had only checked the data traffic between the IP addresses of the editorial team and the industry media as well as possible technical references to audio or video recordings from the “leaked” editorial conference. It could possibly even be a criminal offense.
Editor-in-chief complains about “breach of trust”
According to “Medieninsider”, the works council justifies the searches with the employer’s right to have a certain amount of insight into work equipment. However, the works council did not check whether the procedure was correct. The media magazine does not have any reasons for his absence during the searches, but a joint statement from the “Süddeutsche” is quoted: “The editorial committee, works council and editor-in-chief agree that the protection of editorial secrecy is essential for our work. Therefore, there is no question for us that we try to identify colleagues who violate editorial secrecy.” In another statement, the editors-in-chief are said to have spoken out in favor of “not tolerating any attacks on the protection of press freedom”.
However, according to “Media Insider”, the internal search for the “mole” was unsuccessful. Co-editor-in-chief Judith Willmer still speaks of a “breach of trust,” and Krach also expressed distrust of his colleagues. The way in which the editor-in-chief deals with expressions of opinion by editorial board members is also said to have been discussed at the editorial meeting.
Read more about these topics: