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Top Der Spiegel journalist resigns over fake interviews Der Spiegel says top journalist faked stories for years
(about 1 hour later)
A top reporter on Der Spiegel has left the German weekly news magazine after committing journalistic fraud “on a grand scale” over several years, the publication has said. Germany’s news weekly Der Spiegel has stunned the media world by revealing that one of its award-winning reporters falsified stories for years.
It published a lengthy report on Wednesday following an internal investigation into the work of Claas Relotius, a 33-year-old staff writer known for his vivid investigative articles. Claas Relotius “made up stories and invented protagonists” in at least 14 out of 60 articles that appeared in the magazine’s print and online editions, Spiegel wrote, warning that other outlets could also be affected.
Spiegel said Relotius, who had previously worked for other publications and won a CNN journalist of the year award in 2014, had resigned after admitting to making up interviews. Relotius, 33, resigned after admitting to the scam. He had written for the magazine for seven years and won numerous awards for his investigative journalism, including CNN Journalist of the Year in 2014.
Several of his articles were about the US, including alleged abuse in a Florida reform school, an execution in Texas, a border militia in Arizona and a small town in Minnesota. Earlier this month, he was named German Reporter of the Year for a story about a young Syrian boy.
The magazine said the incident marked “a low point in the 70-year history of Der Spiegel”. Claas Relotius: Er hat sein Talent missbraucht https://t.co/W7htj1oOJQ pic.twitter.com/KtZAsHwMOZ
The cheating came to light after a colleague who worked with him on a story along the US-Mexican border raised suspicions about some of the details in Relotius’s reporting.
The colleague eventually tracked down two alleged sources quoted extensively by Relotius in the article, which was published in November. Both said they had never met Relotius.
Relotius had also lied about seeing a hand-painted sign that read “Mexicans Keep Out”, a subsequent investigation found.
Other fraudulent stories included one about a Yemeni prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, and one about NFL star Colin Kaepernick.
In a lengthy article, Spiegel said it was “shocked” by the discovery and apologised to its readers as well as to anyone who may have been the subject of “fraudulent quotes, made up personal details or invented scenes at fictitious places”.
The Hamburg-based magazine, renowned for its in-depth investigative pieces, said Relotius had committed journalistic fraud “on a grand scale”. It described the episode as “a low point in Spiegel’s 70-year history”.
An in-house commission has been set up to pore over all of Relotius’ work for the weekly.
The reporter also wrote for a string of other well-known outlets, including German newspapers taz, Welt and the Frankfurter Allgemeine’s Sunday edition.
Relotius told Spiegel he regretted his actions and was deeply ashamed, the magazine said.
“I am sick and I need to get help,” he was quoted as saying.
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