The Sunday Times is understood to have initiated disciplinary procedures against business reporter Rupert Steiner, investigating claims that he agreed with fashion house Giorgio Armani where a story should be placed in the newspaper.
Steiner was said to be “unavailable for work” this week when Press Gazette contacted the newspaper.
His scoop that the Football Association had asked Armani to design suits for the England football team was alleged to have gone into the business pages, and in no other part of the paper, at the behest of the company.
Steiner has been at The Sunday Times for 10 years.
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