The Monthly magazine has announced that it has bought and will run – at a length of about 10,000 words – the Wendi Deng profile that Fairfax suppressed, and that the copy is so good that, according to the editor Sally Warhaft “had it been published by Fairfax, it would have been the best piece Good Weekend had ever run.”

Monthly editor Sally Warhaft said this morning that when the profile is published “Readers should ask themselves what possible editorial reasons there were for Fairfax rejecting it.” She said it reflected three months of research and extensive travel and was “the most thorough profile of Deng ever written.”

Warhaft said of the profile that it was not “sensationalised”. “(Deng’s) life isn’t a headline grabbing life, but it is an interesting life and an important story that Australians need to know about.”

Despite the publicly issued assurances of Fairfax management it has been suggested to me that Fairfax board members did contact senior journalists about the Deng profile in the lead up to the decision to can it.

I have reason to believe there may have been several contacts inquiring about the bona fides of the author of the piece, freelance journalist Eric Ellis.

So, here’s a call to the editorial staff at Fairfax.

Have any of you taken a call from a board member inquiring about, or seeking to interfere with, any editorial decisions?

In particular, did any of you take calls from board members about the Wendi Deng profile?

Information received on any terms – no names, no pack drill if that is how it has to be. E-mail MargaretSimons@msn.com.au

While on the topic of the blessings of independent media, and at the risk of blowing Crikey’s own trumpet, Media Watch on Monday reported on the controversy, without mentioning that Crikey broke this story. Ah well, no matter – except for the fact that without independent media, including Crikey, the Ellis profile would not only have never seen the light of day, but the public might not have known it had been written.

Please reflect, those in the know at Fairfax. And disclose.