Toronto Star reporter Paul Watson, who covered the Arctic and world news for the newspaper, resigned on Tuesday.

He alleged on his blog and in subsequent media interviews that Star editors suppressed a story “of significant public interest” regarding the High Arctic search last year for the Franklin Expedition ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. Watson covered the search for the ships extensively for the Star.

“Resigning is the only way I can resume that reporting, complete the work and fulfill my responsibilities as a journalist,” he wrote on his blog on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Star publisher John Cruickshank rejected Watson’s allegation in a staff memo.

“(Watson) speculates that the Prime Minister’s Office and a former editor of The Globe and Mail’s editorial page have convinced the Star to constrain this reporting,” Cruickshank wrote. “Let me publicly deny this extremely odd idea. There is no truth whatever to the suggestion.”

Cruickshank went on to emphasize that the Star has never suppressed stories of significant public interest, and will never do so. As examples, he listed recent high-profile Star investigations into former Toronto mayor Rob Ford and ex-CBC host Jian Ghomeshi.

Cruickshank also said this is “fundamentally” a personnel matter, and as such, the company will keep details about the “employment relationship” confidential.

“We regret that Paul has chosen to resign suddenly and to provide inaccurate information about the Star’s role in his decision,” Cruickshank said. “Paul made many valuable contributions to the Star during his years with the newspaper and we wish him well.”

Watson, a veteran war correspondent, has also worked for other publications including The Los Angeles Times, and has reported from war zones including Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria.

“The thousands of people following this story on social media, and expressing their support for my stand in defence of the truth, can read and hear precisely what I’m saying,” Watson wrote in an email to the Star.

Watson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, having won for spot news photography in 1994 for his photo of a U.S. soldier’s body being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by Somalis during that country’s civil war.

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