Why the Citizen removed articles by Daniel Robson — and what we're doing next

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Like all media leaders in 2026, I spend a lot of time thinking about information manipulation, AI, and the threat it poses to journalism and truth.

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I’ve dreaded the day generated content could appear — and this threat has arrived sooner than I expected.

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Last summer, the Ottawa Citizen published an author in the opinion section who, upon further investigation, does not seem to be a real person.

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Daniel Robson came to us as a self-proclaimed “Canadian journalist” specializing in extremism, terrorism and crime.

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His writing was published three times by the Citizen in 2025. In email interactions, he was cordial, helpful in answering questions, prompt, and deferential with newsroom staff. He was not paid; the Citizen does not pay a freelance fee for submitted opinion pieces.

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Recently, the news outlet Türkiye Today came to us with concerns about Daniel Robson’s identity.

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Upon learning of these concerns, we immediately began an investigation. His headshot, based on online analysis tools, appeared to be AI generated, as did the writing he submitted. After identifying this, we immediately removed the content from our website while we continued to investigate.

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We contacted the writer about setting up a call. We asked about meeting in person. We asked where they were based in Canada.

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As we lobbed emails back and forth, his answers were evasive. He said he could only communicate via email because of recent emergency dental surgery. He couldn’t meet in person because he was in France on a family visit. And he didn’t know when he’d be back in Canada, he said, because he might need another surgery.

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When we were up front with our concerns, and said we wanted to verify his identity — in person — he declared he was incensed by our line of questions, and he ended all communication.

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We need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

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Verifying that submitted content is human-created is a crucial part of our editorial responsibility. And that is what has led us to announce this change to our editorial policy.

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In line with our local mandate and the urgency to respond to instances of AI used for nefarious reasons, opinion pitches submitted to the Ottawa Citizen will only be considered for publication if:

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We’re still navigating a world where fraudulent activity and AI capability continue to evolve quickly.

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And we will continue to strengthen our credential verification system.

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We take our duty to serve readers with factual information that is created by our journalists and our community members extremely seriously, and we will continue to respond to threats to media freedom, truth and accuracy, as the wave of AI-created content swells.

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Sincerely,

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Nicole Feriancek

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Nicole Feriancek is the editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Citizen.

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