Mediahuis, the Belgium-based publisher of the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent, has suspended Peter Vandermeersch, a senior journalist and former executive, after he admitted to using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate fabricated quotes in his published work.
The suspension, announced Thursday, follows an investigation by the Dutch newspaper NRC, where Vandermeersch previously served as editor-in-chief for nine years. NRC discovered that 15 out of 53 blog posts Vandermeersch authored contained quotes that could not be verified in the original sources he cited. Seven individuals quoted by Vandermeersch confirmed they never made the statements attributed to them.
Vandermeersch, who held the position of Fellow “Journalism and Society” at Mediahuis since October, previously served as chief executive of Mediahuis Ireland from 2022 to 2025. He acknowledged his misuse of AI in a statement published on his Substack newsletter, titled “I am admitting my mistake.”
“Even I – with all my years of experience and knowledge – fell into the trap of hallucinations,” Vandermeersch wrote. “I summarised reports using AI tools and worked from those summaries, trusting they were accurate. In doing so, I wrongly put words into people’s mouths, when I should have presented them as paraphrases. In some cases, it reflected my interpretation of their words. That was not just careless – it was wrong.”
Mediahuis has removed eight articles written by Vandermeersch from the Irish Independent’s website and app. CEO Gert Ysebaert stated that the company applies “strict rules for the apply of AI, in which care, human control and transparency are crucial,” and that Vandermeersch’s actions were “at odds with the standards we set.”
The incident highlights growing concerns within the media industry regarding the potential for AI-generated content to undermine journalistic integrity. Vandermeersch warned that AI language models are capable of producing “irresistible quotes” that authors may be tempted to use without verification.
Mediahuis has not announced a timeline for Vandermeersch’s suspension, and the company is currently reviewing its AI usage policies.
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