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SZ« editor-in-chief Wolfgang Krach in Munich 2017
Photo: Sachelle Babbar / ZUMA Press / IMAGO
The editor-in-chief of the »Süddeutsche Zeitung«, Wolfgang Krach, considers the search for a leak in the editorial team to be a mistake. Krach confirmed to SPIEGEL that he expressed his regret about this at the editorial conference this Wednesday. »The violation of editorial confidentiality is unacceptable to us. Nevertheless, it was disproportionate to use technical means to search for the person who passed this information on to the outside world.
Krach had - in coordination with the works council - had the email and telephone connections checked for contacts to the “Medieninsider” portal after the editorial meeting on December 20, 2023 was reported in detail there. The discussion at that time was about how the "SZ" should react to the fact that its deputy editor-in-chief Alexandra Föderl-Schmid was accused by the "Medieninsider" of having copied several texts. Krach feared that the conference had been tapped or recorded.
The “SZ” explained at the time that they had only checked “whether there was data traffic between the IP addresses of the editorial team and the industry service” and had neither “searched journalists’ email inboxes” nor listened to phone calls. Cell phone connection data was also not accessed.
Krach critically assesses his own actions after a few weeks: “Back then, we acted out of the moment and out of outrage that someone had listened to the heart of our editorial team. But we didn't pay enough attention to the fact that, as an investigative medium, we can be accused of applying double standards: on the one hand, we profit journalistically from leaks, but on the other hand, we try to find the leak if we ourselves have fallen victim to such an attack .”