A journalist compromised?

Boris Johnson MP and Anna Fazackerley have, according to the News of the World, been having an affair.

He is the Tory's spokesman for higher education. She is a journalist for the Times Higher Education Supplement.

His boss, Tory leader David Cameron, today told a radio programme that the affair is a private issue. Politicians are human, he said. "We all are flesh and blood and make mistakes". Politicians should be judged on "whether they are honest and straightforward in their dealings with colleagues and whether they are straightforward with the public".

Agreed.

But what about Anna Fazackerley? A quick scan of the Times Higher Education Supplement shows that in March she bylined four articles that mentioned Boris. Some quoted him extensively. The diary in the Sunday tabloid's story suggests that their liaison was active at that time.

In what sense can it be said that Fazackerley was "honest and straightforward" in her dealings with colleagues and the public? This is not nudge-nudge innuendo or prurience. Adults can do what they like. But it is hard to see how readers can be honestly served when a journalist has an intimate and undeclared relationship with a senior figure who she writes about frequently.

I have asked the editor of the THES for his view. Will keep you posted.

Les