1. Career

2. Libel Cases

3. References

Career

Leidig moved to Austrian in 1993 to take up a role as a news presenter with the ORF and in 1995 left to start his first agency, CEN. In 1996, he became editor of the monthly English language Vienna Reporter and in 1995 became editor of a daily Austrian English language newspaper Austria Today. He also produced English language news with a daily English section for Die Presse for several years, later taking over the layout, editorial and writing of a page a day in the Wiener Zeitung, the world's oldest still selling newspaper. CEN later launched other online news wire projects such as the Austrian Times that included an English food guide with Austrian chef Bernie Rieder.^[3]

In 2008 he met Austrian charity worker Hannes Urban and together the two established the Austrian charity project Journalism Without Borders.^[4]

He has written several books including a travel guide Top 10 Vienna (DK Verlag 2009) and The Girl in the Cellar - The Natascha Kampusch Story that was sold to Hodder & Stoughton,.^[5] He has also published though his agency's publishing arm several news books including a book about the Bernie Madoff fraud Pyramid Games (Medusa Publishing 2013) and a book in German about an alleged cover up of police failings in the Kampusch investigation Der Tod des Kampusch - Kidnappers: Wahrheitsfindung im Würgegriff (Medusa Publishing 2016) written by Johann Rzeszut.

Leidig is the vice-chairman of the National Association of Press Agencies where he is also responsible for special projects, setting up the NAPA legal aid programme and a national media news directory to help support journalistic work.

Libel Cases

In 2011 a PR agent for the Kampusch family alleged that Leidig had falsified interviews for his book. The case attracted widespread media attention in Austria and internationally.^[6] Leidig won a full apology after an Austrian court ruled that the case brought against Leidig had been "a deliberate attempt to damage sales of the book."^[7]

In April 2015 Leidig was again accused of producing fake news in two reports by online news portal BuzzFeed. In January 2016 he sued them in a federal court in New York for libel.^[8] The case alleges that two articles by BuzzFeed,^[9][10] were a deliberate attempt at undermining the news agency which was a major supplier to BuzzFeed's UK rivals. In March 2019, the case was dismissed, on the grounds that "Buzzfeed argues that plaintiffs (Leidig) cannot show the falsity of the allegedly defamatory statements, and thus plaintiffs’ claims must fail. The court agrees."^[11]

CEN also published a book, Buzz Bottom Feeders: An Insider Look At How BuzzFeed Tried To Destroy A Rival Business, in which the agency^[12] addressed the points of criticism and raised questions about BuzzFeed's motivation for attacking CEN. The book noted that an added motivation was that BuzzFeed launched its investigation into CEN shortly after the agency had offered BuzzFeed a story that linked Microsoft, one of BuzzFeed's largest corporate sponsors, to an ongoing Austrian corruption case.^[13]

References

• Maccabi Kabilio Jaffa F.C.
• Maccabi Kabul F.C.
• Maccabi Kafr Kanna
• Maccabi Kafr Qara F.C.
• Maccabi Kafr Qasim F.C.
• Maccabi Kafr Sumei F.C.
• Maccabi Kfar Kana F.C.
• Maccabi Kfar Qara F.C.
• Maccabi Kfar Saba F.C. (women)
• Maccabi Kfar Yona F.C.
• Maccabi Kiryat Ekron F.C.
• Maccabi Kiryat Malakhi
• Maccabi Kiryat Malakhi F.C.
• Maccabi Kishronot Hadera F.C.
• Maccabi Lazaros Holon F.C.
• Maccabi Lazarus Holon F.C.
• Maccabi Natanya B.C.
• Maccabi Nazareth Illit F.C.
• Maccabi Netanya (beach soccer)
• Maccabi Netanya F.C. (women)
• Maccabi Or Akiva F.C.
• Maccabi Petah Tikva (handball)
• Maccabi Raanana
• Maccabi Ramat Ben Zvi F.C.
• Maccabi Ramat Gan (handball)