A Financial Times journalist reportedly eavesdropped on private Zoom calls at two rival British newspapers in which management outlined plans for salary cuts and furloughs amid the coronavirus pandemic.
FT media reporter Mark Di Stefano logged into Zoom meetings held by London’s Independent and Evening Standard newspapers last week without authorization, according to a Monday report by the Independent. The report said a Zoom call linked to Di Stefano’s FT email address briefly showed up during a private Zoom meeting last Thursday but was disabled after 16 seconds.
“The caller’s video was disabled, but journalists saw his name flash briefly on screen before he left the meeting,” according to the Independent.
Five minutes later, a separate, unnamed account joined the Zoom call with the video switched off so only a black square appeared on the screen among the 100 people who were invited to join the call. That time, the caller reportedly remained on the call until its conclusion. The account was later found to be associated with Di Stefano’s cellphone number.
After the call, Di Stefano posted news about cutbacks at the Independent on his Twitter account. The Independent said that news appeared before Independent editor Christian Broughton and other managers were able to contact journalists in the US who had not logged into the call.
The Financial Times published a bylined story by Di Stefano in which it said its source was “people on the call” and quoted chief executive Zach Leonard.
Di Stefano also had appeared on a Zoom call in which Evening Standard editor George Osborne revealed furloughs and salary cuts on April 1. At that time, Di Stefano also broke the news on his Twitter account, attributing the info to an “internal Zoom call” while the call was still underway, according to the Independent.
Independent editor Christian Broughton said, “We respect freedom of speech and understand the challenges of news-gathering, but the Independent considers the presence of a third-party journalist in a staff briefing to be entirely inappropriate and an unwarranted intrusion into our employees’ privacy. Our spokesperson had a full statement prepared for the press — any interested reporters only needed to call and ask.”
The Independent report also quotes a spokesperson for the Evening Standard who stated: “For a journalist from the FT to have illegitimately accessed a private Zoom call is unacceptable. We are sure the FT will want to offer an immediate explanation and an apology.”
The Independent report said Di Stefano is under investigation by the FT after the Independent contacted FT senior figures about the incidents.
Di Stefano, who joined the FT from BuzzFeed in January, did not respond to an email from the Post. The FT also did not respond to a request for comment.