THE Northern Echo was criticised on radio and television yesterday by senior managers of British American Tobacco for publishing a wholly correct story about the imminent closure of the Rothmans factory in Darlington.

One BAT manager said he was "very angry"; another said he was so angry that there would be an investigation into how we came by our story.

Their anger was no doubt fuelled by the anger of their employees who felt they had been kept in the dark about their futures by senior management.

It is understandable that the employees should be angered because management has not been entirely open with them; it is understandable that the management should blame The Northern Echo because it is always easiest, when wanting to deflect attention, to shoot the messenger.

The truth is that there has been growing speculation about the Darlington plant's future for at least six years as BAT has slimmed down its North-East operations, closing Spennymoor and Peterlee factories, and pumping investment into its Southampton operation.

That speculation has become feverish and more detailed since February, with BAT still denying all rumours.

As June has gone on, key figures have told us it was only a matter of time before the plant was closed.

The information circulating became more and more precise until, on Tuesday morning, we received information from a number of different sources that the closure announcement was about to be made.

News of such magnitude simply could not be ignored but BAT was given ample warning of our intention to publish the story in order to give the company time to react.

We contacted the company early Tuesday afternoon but a spokesman dismissed everything as mere speculation.

Even yesterday lunchtime - an hour before its official announcement - BAT was sticking to the same line.

Newspapers are often - rightly - criticised for getting their facts wrong; now we are being criticised for getting them totally right.

And this isn't a trivial issue. It is 500 jobs lost directly; probably another 1,000 indirectly; possibly thousands more affected. This on top of the huge job losses in south Durham and Teesside recently.

These are all people who need the knowledge as quickly as possible so they can begin planning, possibly retraining, for the rest of their lives.

Yet The Northern Echo is being criticised for telling them. Extraordinary.