(ATR) A leader of the Madrid 2016 Olympic bidtells Around the Ringsthey did not send a spy to Rio de Janeiro for the just-ended visit of the IOC Evaluation Commission. The Rio bid yanked the credential of a journalist amid accusations he was a spy for the Spanish bid.
Ostensibly accredited for the news agency EFE, Simon Walsh was told his Rio credential had been suspended on Saturday morning, the fourth and final day of the IOC Evaluation Commission visit.
Walsh's name appears as the contact on press releases for Madrid 2016 as recently as late April.
"Simon Walsh lied and lied and lied," Mike Lee, communications consultant for Rio 2016, told reporters. "He said he works for EFE out of London. . Simon Walsh is in reality a spy for Madrid."
Antonio Fernandez, managing director of Madrid 2016, tells Around the Rings that Walsh works with Bell Pottinger, the British public relations firm hired by the bid for internatiomal communications.
“He is not a Madrid 2016 employee and we are not involved in this strategy,” says Fernandez. He says the bid has not spoken to Bell Pottinger yet to clarify Walsh’s role. Bell Pottinger was not immediately available to respond to queries from Around the Rings.
Walsh tells Around the Rings that he is a freelancer.
"Rio 2016 accredited me on this trip as EFE," Walsh said. "My relationship for the purpose of this trip is with EFE."
This is believed to be the first time a journalist credential has been revoked by a bid committee. Lee and his colleague, Catherine St. Laurent, are considering filing a formal complaint to the IOC and Madrid 2016.
"It was misleading," St. Laurent tells ATR. "It was deceptive to the bid committee."
Walsh, who is based in London and speaks fluent Spanish, said he was assigned to cover the Evaluation Commission visit by Javier Munoz in the EFE Madrid office. Walsh said he was not able to get confirmation from Munoz to provide to Lee and St. Laurent because of the time difference. His name has not appeared on stories, Walsh said, because he has been feeding information to other EFE reporters.
"It happened on the last day and it happened because I was asking some difficult questions," Walsh said.
He declined to elaborate.
Suspicions arose when Lee invited Walsh to be one of several hand-picked foreign journalists attending an exclusive meeting with President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday. Lee said the head of EFE in Brazil told him that he did not know Walsh. In an 11th-hour substitution, an EFE reporter based in Rio attended the interview in Walsh's place.
Walsh said he has been accredited by Madrid 2016 for this week's Evaluation Commission visit as a freelancer and plans to work for EFE.
Fernandez says the Madrid bid welcomes visits by its competitors and has actually accredited the communications director of the Tokyo bid.
Reported by Ed Hula and Karen Rosen in Rio de Janeiro
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