German magazine Der Spiegel suspends two senior editors amid investigation after top reporter admitted making up stories for years
- German magazine suspends two senior editors in fallout over reporting scandal
- Claas Relotius, 33, ‘fabricated’ facts in at least 14 articles published both in print and online for weekly magazine Der Spiegel
- The reporter was sacked earlier this month after the allegations emerged
A German magazine has suspended two senior editors in the fallout of a major media scandal.
The weekly Der Spiegel magazine said it had suspended the contracts of Matthias Geyer and Ullrich Fichtner following allegations a reporter had ‘made up stories’.
The magazine revealed journalist, Claas Relotius, 33, ‘fabricated’ facts in at least 14 articles published both in print and online.
The magazine revealed journalist, Claas Relotius, 33, ‘fabricated facts’ in at least 14 articles published both in print and online. He is pictured as CNN’s Journalist of the Year 2014, which was stripped from him after the allegations surfaced
An internal letter said the two editors would be suspended until an internal commission completes an investigation, RTE news reported.
It said: ‘The Relotius affair raises the question as to whether [Mr Ullrich and Mr Fichtner] can continue in their jobs after such a disaster.’
‘The first discovered it for Der Spiegel, the second hired him and was until recently his superior’.
Claas Relotius won the CNN Journalist of the Year in 2014 and won the Reemtsma Liberty Award, a German journalist award, in March last year.
He allegedly ‘misquoted protagonists’ for a piece from Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and only last month wrote a ‘fabricated story’ called Jaeger’s Border about Arizona’s vigilante border patrols.
CNN said its 2014 awards jury met after the allegations were published and voted to strip him of the award.
The magazine earlier this month described the revelations as a ‘low-point’ in its 70 year history.
The reporter was sacked earlier this month after the allegations emerged.
The weekly magazine is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. Der Spiegel said it had suspended the contracts of Matthias Geyer and Ullrich Fichtner following allegations a reporter had ‘made up stories’