A row has erupted after a regional daily revealed the background of a web manager who runs a community news website on its patch.

Yesterday's Hull Daily Mail carried a front page piece about Paul Smith, a digital publisher who runs a website featuring photos and news from the nearby town of Beverley.

Following a tip-off that his company Smiths Media Solutions had also designed pornography websites, a Mail reporter posing as an escort girl arranged a meeting with him about building a site for her.

The paper's page one splash drew links between Mr Smith and local civic leaders, who had given their backing to him and his Beverley project HU17.net, and the paper also carried a stinging comment piece.

"Readers of this newspaper will be understandably alarmed to learn that a man running a community website focused on Beverley is linked to a host of hardcore pornography sites," it said.

"The site earned Mr Smith credibility and connections in Beverley. He even became a member of a partnership group promoting the town.

"What Mr Smith has done is not illegal, but it is certainly not consistent with publishing a responsible local website."

But a writer for the HU17.net website has hit back at the Mail, calling the stories a "character assassination".

"Paul Smith has had some dealings with people involved in the adult industry in the past, and has coded some of their websites," it says.

"He has also taught many of them how to update their own sites, and this looks like being a huge mistake, as the content is then completely out of his control yet still carries links to his website company.

"However, as the Hull Daily Mail states several times, Paul Smith is supposedly personally behind 'thousands' of hardcore websites.

"Paul owns a total of 112 domain names which cover every website he has made over four years of every kind. It's a mystery where the figure of 3,991 websites comes from."

The Hull Daily Mail's main news story online had attracted over 320 comments at the time of writing, the majority of which were supportive of Mr Smith, as are those posted under the response story on HU17.net.

One poster has written that they have already raised the story with the Press Complaints Commission.

Hull Daily Mail editor John Meehan today issued a robust defence of the newspaper's coverage.

He told HTFP: "Our coverage has been entirely legitimate and in the public interest. It was wholly accurate and responsible.

"We reported fully Mr Smith's explanation for his activities related to pornographic websites. We even carried a piece in our newspaper from Mr Smith's website accusing us of mounting a 'smear campaign' against him.

"We believe it is important that people and organisations in Beverley are fully aware of Mr Smith's activities. They can then make their own minds up about whether he is an appropriate person to be running and producing content for a community website.

"There are also important issues related to the fact that he had become a member of a partnership group representing the town and that the local authority, East Riding Council, had actively promoted his website.

"The story has provoked considerable discussion on our website. Many of the comments are misinformed, but we have continued to allow people to post their comments because we believe passionately in freedom of expression, within the boundaries of the law."

Submitting Information

Click here to have your say on this story