HoS on Manukia

The HoS has said it is auditing all stories by former reporter John Manukia.

At this stage three other stories appear to have had fake interviews. A big difference though is the other three interviews involved a fabricated person. The one which caught him out is when he fabricated an interview with an actual person.

I wonder how long stories with made-up people interviewed may have gone on undetected, if he had not made upo the Solomona interview which was bound to be revealed as a fake. Do newsrooms check that people interviewed actually exist?

Again US newspapers employ fact checkers. Is such a role needed here to prevent journalists simply inventing people and interviewing them?