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Deputy »SZ« editor-in-chief Föderl-Schmid: Withdrawal from day-to-day business
Photo: Friedrich Bungert / SZ Photo / picture alliance
Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, deputy editor-in-chief of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ), will temporarily withdraw from day-to-day operations. According to SPIEGEL information, this was announced at the editorial conference on Monday.
The reason for the move is apparently allegations of plagiarism, which turn out to be more far-reaching than previously known. It was already known that Föderl-Schmid was said to have copied contextual paragraphs in her stories word for word from other portals without labeling this. The editor-in-chief of the “SZ” has now confirmed this incorrect handling of sources.
Now, however, the Austrian journalist and plagiarism expert Stefan Weber has contacted the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” with new accusations – this time they concern Föderl-Schmid’s dissertation at the University of Salzburg. Weber had already announced a “comprehensive analysis of Föderl-Schmid’s writings” in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” last December. Results, he explained at the time, would be available “in a few weeks.”
Looking for the “mole”
According to a spokesman, the SZ now wants to deal with the matter with external support. Accordingly, an unspecified “commission” was commissioned to investigate the plagiarism allegations. In addition, Föderl-Schmid herself asked the University of Salzburg to check her dissertation for evidence of misconduct. Her doctoral thesis was submitted in 1996 and is entitled “From monopoly to market: ten years of the dual broadcasting system in Germany”. The plagiarism expert Weber also once received his doctorate from the university.
Within the SZ leadership, people have been reacting to the research into their own company for weeks, which is being carried out primarily through the “Media Insider” portal; there are fears that internal meetings will be eavesdropped or recorded.
Since quotes were leaked to the outside world, the editor-in-chief was looking for a "mole" and even had employees' email addresses and phone numbers searched for contacts with the media portal. An action that was coordinated with employee representatives, but has since attracted significant criticism.
In a joint statement from the editor-in-chief, the works council and the editorial committee, the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” writes that they only checked “whether there was data traffic between the IP addresses of the editorial team and the industry service.” They neither “searched journalists’ email inboxes” nor listened to phone calls.