Reuters columnist quits after 'multiple breaches' of trading code

Reuters did not identify any of the journalists involved but the Financial Times said Neil Collins, pictured, former City editor of The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times and the London Evening Standard, had volunteered his resignation after realising he had breached the company’s rules guiding journalists’ conduct.

"While we have no evidence the journalist was abusing his position for financial gain, we take such breaches extremely seriously and that journalist resigned with immediate effect during our investigation," editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said in a note to staff on Monday.

He added that several other cases had come to light as a result of questioning Reuters Breakingviews staff where disclosures to readers or managers could or should have been made. Investigations continue.

“A fundamental foundation of our principles is that we avoid conflicts of interest in our reporting and that we are honest and transparent with our readers when those conflicts occur,” Schlesinger’s e-mail said, according to The Guardian.

Thomson Reuters’ code on disclosing financial conflicts forbids journalists from writing about shares they own unless they notify their interest to their manager and from dealing in shares about which they have written recently or intend to write in the near future.

Schlesinger said it was vital that everyone looked to their own market participation to be sure they complied with the spirit and the letter of the rules. “This is about our compact with our readers; it is about our individual reputations; and it is about ensuring that Reuters and Thomson Reuters live up to the standards set both by our long, proud history and our Trust Principles,” he added.

The FT said Thomson Reuters had identified 37 articles published between February 2009 and July 2010 in which columnists wrote about companies in which they held shares, and 16 articles in which journalists wrote about companies before or after trading in their shares.

Schlesinger said the columnist wrote commentary about companies in which he had a financial interest and made trades shortly afterwards. The code of conduct forbids journalists from writing about shares they own unless they notify their interest to their manager and from dealing in shares about which they have written recently or intend to write in the near future.

Breakingviews will be adding a disclaimer to all relevant archived columns to say whether the commentators held shares in the companies at the time and if they traded them shortly before or after publication. For example, on 25 May Collins wrote a column headed “Time for BP to share the pain”. According to the refiled version of the article, he owned shares in BP when he wrote the piece and bought shares shortly before and after.

The FT said that in an e-mail to Hugo Dixon, editor of Breakingviews, Collins said he had made no attempt to conceal his activities from his colleagues, and had voluntarily contacted Reuters as soon as he realised he might be in breach of the company’s rules.

“I am saddened and embarrassed by my breaches of the rules and hope that you will shortly be able to draw a line under this unfortunate episode,” he wrote.

Collins was hired by Reuters in the spring of 2009 to join its original commentary team. Thomson Reuters acquired Breakingviews for £12 million last December and the two teams were merged. ■