Press Gazette has been recognised by the Paul Foot Award judges for its investigation into AI-generated experts who conned their way into dozens of news outlets.
Journalist Rob Waugh led the investigation, which began with the revelation that one of the UK’s most quoted psychologists – Barbara Santini – does not exist.
Since then, Press Gazette has compiled a dossier of more than 1,000 faked stories featuring more than a dozen fake experts.
Private Eye’s Paul Foot Award recognises investigative and campaigning journalism that combines “intrepid investigative skills, dogged campaigning and a deep commitment to championing fairness and exposing wrongdoing”.
Other longlisted stories include The Observer for The real Salt Path investigation, Democracy for Sale’s investigation into PR dirty tactics against The Sunday Times and The i Paper’s revelations about silicosis killing kitchen installers (see full longlist).
The longlist of 12 will be narrowed down into a shortlist of six and the winner will be announced on 1 June.
After the first Press Gazette article, journalists began to contact Waugh with screenshots of email inboxes submerged in AI-written press releases with insights from fake experts. With each new story, it became clear that the problem was far from isolated, but systematic.
The research also uncovered organisations based in countries ranging from Lithuania to Kenya targeting British newspapers to plant fake stories, with a view to securing links in respected publications for SEO purposes.
Plumbworld, Plates Express and Ski Vertigo are among the businesses deploying dubious PR agencies, along with sex shops, vape shops and casino sites.
Press Gazette has faced down various legal threats, including from Santini herself who told Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford via Whatsapp:
“Should you proceed with this article, my solicitors will initiate immediate legal action for defamation, including claims for damages arising from reputational harm. Further, your conduct may constitute harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and any misuse of personal data to advance false claims will be treated as a breach of GDPR.”
Fake experts uncovered by Waugh included ‘Anne Simmons’, a supposed former royal cleaner, who appeared in 20 stories including the printed edition of The Times, and ‘Fiona Jenkins’, a gardener without a single online photo in a garden who featured 170 times in British media over a period of three years.
In the wake of Press Gazette’s campaign, major publishers in the UK have announced initiatives to deal with the issue, with Reach developing a blacklist of known bad actors, and organisations instituting new systems to stop interviews with fake experts.
Yahoo News now insists on writers filling in a form with Linkedin and website links for each new interviewee.
Journalist response services such as Qwoted and ResponseSource have cracked down on fake experts, with Qwoted now offering a built-in AI detector that warns of suspiciously quick responses and AI-written answers.
Press Gazette was shortlisted for a Paul Foot Award in 2015 for its Save Our Sources campaign, which revealed the extent to which UK police forces were abusing surveillance powers to find and punish journalistic sources.
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