Newcastle paper censured for revealing source

A stupid mistake by a trainee reporter has led to the Press Complaints Commission upholding a complaint against the Newcastle Evening Chronicle for failing to protect a confidential source. A former employee at the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) sent the paper an email to reveal her experiences at the agency and asked to remain anonymous. But a Chronicle reporter then forwarded it to the RPA for comment and failed to remove the employee's details. The PCC ruled the paper had therefore breached clause 14 of the editor's code of practice which states that "journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information". The paper accepted it had made a serious mistake and said the trainee reporter had been formally disciplined. (Via pcc.org.uk)