Revealed: The Sun’s “Catch & Kill” Deals with Celebrities

Seven examples of The Sun newspaper suppressing major public interest stories about household-name people in return for favours have been uncovered by a Byline Times investigation – including their recent interview with BBC host Jermaine Jenas.

After Mr Jenas was sacked last month from his presenting roles on Match of the Day and The One Show, he agreed to give the newspaper his first interview – which was headlined “I’M SO ASHAMED” – during which he admitted sending ‘inappropriate texts’ to two BBC co-workers.

However, we can reveal the former footballer agreed to do so on the basis that The Sun suppressed a story it had featuring one of the women he had been messaging, and that it would not run any further allegations against him.

But this is understood to have backfired on the paper after more women came forward to make claims about Jenas’s workplace behaviour – leaving the tabloid, which is edited by Victoria Newton, who has a track record of using so-called “Catch & Kill” tactics, hamstrung by the deal.

Other examples where The Sun has used this method include a prime-time family entertainer photographed buying cocaine, three A-list sports stars breaking lockdown – one to host a sex party – and a football legend with a high-profile marriage cheating on his wife.

In each case the negative stories about the stars were “killed” once they agreed to give interviews to the Murdoch-owned tabloid, often on entirely unrelated matters, or endorsed events sponsored by The Sun or backed its campaigns.

Professor of Media Law at the University of Leeds Paul Wragg criticised the practice, saying it toed the line of good ethics and, potentially, lawfulness. He said: “It is legally questionable. It is certainly morally and ethically wrong. It is not the press performing the function of the press. It is just a company performing in the best interests of its sponsors and advertisers, not its readers. This method of catching people out and then killing the story must stick in the heart of any true journalist working for that paper.”

An investigation has found the ‘Catch and Kill’ approach to newsgathering has flourished at The Sun – the UK’s most powerful tabloid – in the four years since February 2020 when Victoria Newton became its Editor-in-Chief.

In another example, enacted the day Newton took up her post, The Sun suppressed details of an “unwise but not illegal” affair between the former daytime television presenter Philip Schofield and a younger male colleague in return for a front-page interview in which the married star announced he was gay.

When challenged, Schofield denied as “absolutely categorically untrue” that his coming-out front page was part of a newspaper deal with him and his management in 2019, saying instead that a media adviser encouraged it as part of his announcement.”

A spokesperson on behalf of The Sun said “No deal was discussed with Mr Schofield to suppress any stories at all.”

This newspaper has spoken to three separate Sun sources who confirm Newton was at the heart of the deal-making and who say the secretive arrangements are angering some journalists.

One newsroom staffer said: “The tactic has become more common under Vic who, along with ensuring the celebrities give interviews, often ropes them into turning up to our awards dos or backing campaigns they don’t care about in return for being let off the hook.

“The feeling among the reporters is that, because celebrities tend to be media trained, the interviews are often dull. It doesn’t feel like a great deal for the paper, and it is deceiving our readers.”

A second source said: “What the paper’s been doing in these cases is the opposite of journalism, which is meant to be revealing things people do not want to be revealed.

“The self-serving argument goes that Vic’s approach handcuffs the subject of the story and negates the litigation risk over breaches of privacy or defamation.

“But the reality is these arrangements undermine trust not only in The Sun but in the wider media, which is already undergoing a crisis of confidence with the public. This is why this practice needs to be called out.”

A third source told Byline Times: “Previously the industry’s stock-in-trade was catching and exposing public figures for things they shouldn’t have been doing. But for various reasons things have changed.

“So now when The Sun is offered photographs or videos which catch the celebrities misbehaving, it will often kill the stories, in collusion with their publicists. In effect, the paper buys the stories off the market, but only as long as they get something in return.

“It’s got to the point that lots of celebrities know they just need to make friends with Vic and they can behave as they wish with a get-out-of-jail-free card if they get in trouble.”

Newton, publicly, is quick to defend The Sun’s journalism. At a parliamentary reception last October, she spoke of the importance of Press freedom in speaking truth to power and upholding the trust of readers.

She also demanded the abolition of Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, a legislation much criticised by the news media for making news-outlets who fail to sign up to independent regulation liable for all sides’ costs in court defamation proceedings, but which was drafted to give ordinary people access to affordable justice against newspapers by giving all sides a low-cost arbitration alternative to High Court action, which is often only otherwise available to the rich and powerful.

But the editor hit out at those who seek redress through the courts too. She added: “We at The Sun will always fight hard for our right to publish, and have run stories in the face of the most heavy-handed legal threats… but the spiralling costs of such litigation means that stories and journalism in the public interest are under threat.”

Byline Times’ investigation, however, calls into question that commitment to the public interest.

In the case of the family entertainer buying cocaine, The Sun had caught their transactions on camera and also had extensive details of their addiction to the illegal Class A drug. But such was the popularity of the star, and consequential usefulness to the tabloid, a deal was done to protect their public image while handing the paper other details of their private life.

In the case of one A-list sports star, they were proven to have taken part in a group sex party at the height of lockdown, just as The Sun was pressing home for its readers the Government’s policies to place the rest of the population under effective house arrest. But the celebrity’s unlawful behaviour was overlooked in return for giving the paper an exclusive interview.

In the case of a second household name sports star – a footballer – they were also caught in breach of lockdown but went on to speak extensively about other personal matters rather than face potential criminal investigation.

And in the case of the “love rat” football legend, their infidelities were hidden rather than having the state of their marriage splashed across the paper, putting them “in hock” to the tabloid, according to a well-positioned source.

In January, the UK was found to have the least trusted media among 28 countries surveyed for the latest Edelman Trust Barometer. In response to the question: “How much do you trust that institution to do what is right,” just a third of respondents said they had faith in the British media.

Byline Times put this article to The Sun for comment. They had not replied by the time of publication but later added “No other title has broken more exclusive public interest stories than The Sun, bringing to light new information holding public bodies and authorities to account.”

This article was updated on 20/9/2024 to reflect a response from The Sun.