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Brooks Newmark Trinity Mirror

Trinity Mirror chief backs controversial Twitter sex sting tactics

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By John Glenday, Reporter

October 3, 2014 | 2 min read

Trinity Mirror chief executive Simon Fox has defended the Sunday Mirror’s tactics in employing a freelance journalist to snare a Tory MP in a Twitter sex sting, arguing that it was in the public interest.

Brooks Newmark was forced to resign from his role as communities minister after texting a compromising image of himself in his pyjamas to the journalist.

In an email to staff Fox said: “We were back in the headlines this weekend when we broke the story about the MP Mr Brooks Newmark. Whilst this has attracted a barrage of negative comment and the threat of an Ipso investigation, we believe that we were right to publish this story on public interest grounds.

“If you have only read or heard the coverage rather than read the Sunday Mirror itself, you will have been left with a very wrong impression of what we did.

“Most importantly we did not publish any photographs of the women in the story. Nor did we list any names of any MPs other than Brooks Newmark. The images of the women that you have seen widely reproduced were put there by other publications. The same goes for other MPs including those who have said that they will complain to Ipso.”

Alex Wickham, a reporter for the Guido Fawkes political blog, carried out the sting and subsequently sold the story to the Sunday Mirror, after both The Sun and mail on Sunday turned him down.

Brooks Newmark Trinity Mirror

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