chequebook journalism

noun

1. the practice of securing exclusive rights to material for newspaper stories by paying a high price for it, regardless of any moral implications such as paying people to boast of criminal or morally reprehensible activities

Example Sentences

There were also concerns the government was "giving in to chequebook journalism" and commercial influences that had a stake in getting Budd to run in the Olympics, and that it was opening itself up to criticism by treating her as an exceptional case.

From BBC

Its £15m investigation has secured 34 convictions, but it has also secured a little more certainty about where the law draws a line when it comes to the murky practice of chequebook journalism.

From BBC

Ultimately it’s a story of how recklessness and ruthlessness – financial and moral – promoted chequebook journalism, a preoccupation with intrusive tabloid gossip and growing indifference to the pollution of accepted notions involving personal privacy.

From The Guardian

The technology might have been different but most of the excesses identified by Leveson in 2012 were evident 50 years ago – not just chequebook journalism and intrusions into privacy but the use of newspapers to pursue vendettas on behalf of their owners.

From The Guardian

From a phone-hacking scandal which has engulfed Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire to the use of "chequebook journalism," the tactics of Britain's notoriously aggressive press will be exposed in detail.

From Reuters