DSB deputy director suspended

The deputy director of the Danish State Railways, Peder Nedergaard, was suspended yesterday afternoon, effective immediately.

The suspension was largely due to DR's coverage of the discovery that the deputy director had received a number of incriminating emails to his private email account from the director of PR agency Waterfront Communications A/S, Lars Poulsen.

Several of the emails revealed that DSB had paid Waterfront to feed the DSB-critical journalist Lars Abild freelance assignments to keep him occupied and away from writing negative articles about DSB.

Suspended pending investigation
In another email, Lars Poulsen forwarded highly confidential and intimate details about Lars Abild's medical history. According to the Danish Act on Processing of Personal Data, this type of information is illegal for people to receive and distribute.

Peder Nedergaard has been suspended pending an external legal investigation.

DR News has tried in vain to contact Peder Nedergaard for a comment.

The decision to suspend Nedergaard was made at a meeting on Tuesday between chair of DSB Peter Schütze, managing director of DSB Jesper Lok, and law firm Bruun & Hjejle regarding an external investigation of DSB's collaboration with PR agency Waterfront.

Quickly publicise findings
"Like everyone else, we only care about investigating this matter as quickly and efficiently as possible, as well as keeping the case records as open to the public as we can. Let me stress yet again that the work methods described by the press are in no way related to the way we at DSB wish to run our business," said Lok, who declined any further comment.

The entire case history will now be examined during the external investigation launched by DSB management.

A number of parliamentary parties remain critical that the investigation is being handled by Bruun & Hjejle, the law firm used by DSB to investigate the scandal surrounding DSB First.

Minister for Transport Henrik Dam Kristensen (SocDem) has called a meeting of all political spokespeople to discuss the matter, Kristensen informed DR News.