Daily Telegraph provokes fresh outrage over reporting of ‘suicides’ at News UK

Mental health charities and senior journalists took to social media to urge newspapers to think carefully about how they report suicides, after the Daily Telegraph published a story concerning the death of two employees at News UK, the publisher of the Times and the Sun.

On Twitter and various online forums, people pointedly shared Samaritans’ media guidelines. The front page of the Daily Telegraph reported that News UK had “launched an internal investigation after two members of its commercial department took their own lives within weeks of one another amid fears that staff are being put under unreasonable pressure to hit targets”.

It went on to explain that “in addition to the tragic deaths, at least nine other staff members from the company’s advertising arm have been signed off recently with stress-related complaints”.

The suicides story – and another alleging that the Guardian altered editorial content to meet an advertiser’s demands, a claim rejected by the paper – were widely seen as retaliation by the Telegraph following days of criticism over its limited coverage of the recent HSBC tax scandal. Last week, the Telegraph’s chief political correspondent, Peter Oborne, resigned, citing concerns that its relationship with HSBC, a major advertiser, had influenced how it reported the bank’s affairs.

The Samaritans guidelines explain: “There is no simple explanation for why someone chooses to die by suicide and it is rarely due to one particular factor.”

It warns that: “Over-simplification of the causes or perceived ‘triggers’ for a suicide can be misleading and is unlikely to reflect accurately the complexity of suicide. For example, avoid the suggestion that a single incident, such as loss of a job, relationship breakdown or bereavement, was the cause.”

The News UK story, written by a “Telegraph reporter” branded “despicable” by Stig Abell, managing editor of the Sun, prompted a Twitter firestorm with many people questioning the Telegraph’s judgment. “Telegraph’s destruction of its brand astounding for speed, effectiveness” tweeted columnist Jenni Russell. Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, tweeted at Murdoch MacLennan, the Telegraph’s chief executive, urging him to remove the story from the internet.

News UK explained that the company had lost two members of its commercial staff “in unconnected circumstances in recent months from our London and Manchester offices.” It added that its HR procedures were “second to none”.

Oborne’s resignation forced Telegraph Media Group (TMG), owned by David and Frederick Barclay, to defend its coverage of how HSBC had helped clients avoid paying tax, and prompted close scrutiny of the newspaper company’s finances.

The Guardian reported that HSBC had loaned one of the Barclays’ companies £250m. It has now emerged that the group is owned, via a series of companies, by a company based in Bermuda, a leading tax haven. The group is owned by Press Acquisitions Limited, which is owned by a company called May Corporation Limited, based in Jersey, a tax haven. All 150m shares in May Corporation are held by another Jersey-based company called Press Holdings Limited. All 267m shares in Press Holdings are held by a company called B.UK. Limited, based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Bermuda’s government rejects the suggestion it is a tax haven. However, its lack of transparency is a cause for concern among politicians. Labour has pledged that Bermuda and other British tax havens would be given six months to follow new transparency rules or find themselves on an international blacklist, if it wins the election.

“The Telegraph Media Group is a UK-incorporated business which pays corporation tax in the UK, in accordance with British tax laws,” a spokesman for TMG said. “The location of the ultimate holding companies has no bearing on TMG’s tax status.”

The Telegraph has described Oborne’s criticisms of its HSBC coverage as “full of inaccuracy and innuendo”. However, analysis by the Media Standards Trust found that the paper “devoted far fewer articles to the subject than comparable UK news sources”. The trust added: “Those articles that it did publish contained little or no investigation into the allegations levelled at HSBC.”

It is understood there is deep disquiet among some Telegraph reporters and senior management about the decision to run the story. One Telegraph reporter told Buzzfeed there was a “newsroom culture where journalists could not veto stories they did not want to write”.

Several figures contacted by the Observer declined to comment. Requests for comment from the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, a Telegraph columnist, were not returned.