The Finnish blondes were almost fatal. Four years ago, the German Journalist Claas Relotius for the “NZZ Folio” wrote a “Coiffeur”column. Years of Hairdressers and barbers from all over the world came in the booklet regularly and gave insights into their professional life. In this issue 02/2014 the mother of three children, Hannu Sundell from Lahti told how you dye your blonde clients hair is dark, and that they cut the hair like wet because the strands were grippy in the Hand. Cost: 18 Euros. Hardly published, posted, a reader of the “NZZ Folio” in an online comment. Hairdressers in Finland were significantly more expensive, Hannu the name of a man – and anyway, In Lahti, it is not giving this Salon.
Apparently it was in the Text to a Salon in Helsinki, a man by the name of Hannu operated. “It seems that Hanna and Hannu and their Salons had confused our author,” apologized the “Folio”section later in a longer correction. Today she knows that she was a scammer. One of the largest in the German-speaking countries, since Tom is grief to a series of Interviews with Prominent thought.
Claas Relotius, now a Reporter for the “mirror”, dressing in style texts or freely invented. Two days ago, he flew dissimilar, with 40000 characters in his case was signed in a major story – in the style of that of Relotius not at all. Ullrich Fichtner, one of three designated Co-chief editors of the “mirror”, attributed in the Text, with its Reporter have deceived the magazine with “high criminal energy”.
showered With prices
The extent of this deception is to employ the documentation Department of the mirror for months because of the Relotius was a particularly well-respected Journalist of the magazine. The 33-Year-old wrote reports, which are like movies. Tightly told, with the stark figures and quotations that deal with the reader about the reading. Relotius reported from the emotional Hardcore Zone, of the American-Mexican border, from abortion clinics, Guantanamo, or Aleppo. For this, he has been showered with awards, four times he won the German Report. CNN named him the 2014 “Journalist of the Year”.
Relotius can Write as Claas – the wish of some in the industry. Now his secret is blown, and as with any serial fraud, a pattern is revealed. Relotius no longer handle seems to have in the bag of tricks, if he came with a history. An example of the shows in his Reportage about the small town of Fergus Falls in the rural United States. Because he finds no interesting protagonists, created Relotius such. For example, a Mexican restaurant owner who voted for Trump, because she could no longer deal with the expensive health insurance Obamacare your kidneys. Although there is the woman, but to your name, everything is invented by others. The same is true for the city officials that the carrying of a Beretta to work, never been to the sea or a woman had fake everything. A spiteful fantasy of Trumps America.
A US Journalist from Fergus Falls, has knocked Relotius’ article on all of the untruths. The result, dozens of fake passages, seems pathological. In the confession to his superiors Relotius described himself as “sick.” The fear of Failure had become with the success becoming bigger and bigger. Relotius’ plight is to be paid in spite of the pressure, in times of falling Readers so self-caused. This also shows a statement he made in a talk round to the subject of “The mystery of storytelling” in may 2015: “I trust almost sure that the reader is familiar with the fact that this is reasonably well researched.”
Claas Relotius has won multiple awards for his work. Photo: Picture-Alliance
A Commission of the “mirror” will now examine all the articles, the Relotius in its seven years, the magazine has published. Initial findings show that Relotius has not asked the employees of the English-speaking side of the “mirror” repeatedly, therefore, to translate his texts. So it was, for example, in a much-publicized Interview with the last Survivors of the Nazi resistance organization, the White Rose. Several passages in it are evidently fictitious. “That’s also why his texts, which often play abroad have not been debunked, as soon as counterfeit or as in Parts manipulated,” writes the magazine, which employs over 60 facts checker and a huge reputation damage.
in Switzerland, the processing of the Case begins now. Relotius wrote not only in the “NZZ Folio”, but also in the “NZZ am Sonntag”, the “world week” and the magazine “reports”. “This is a tragedy that happened there. Claas Relotius has abused our trust,” says Daniel Puntas Bernet, the editor-in-chief of the “reportages”. Relotius wrote in the magazine between 2013 and 2016, a total of five stories, including one that was awarded the German reporter prize. It was about a killer who used to be in a prison in the US of a with Alzheimer’s disease cellmate. “At the time, we got off the phone with the prison. To us, it was confirmed that a Reporter on the spot. We had no reason to distrust the story,” says Puntas Bernet. With his small Team, the editor-in-chief will look to the five published reports and verify, as far as this is possible.
In the “NZZ am Sonntag” has in these days also with the review of stories of the reporter. Two employees look at the six texts, the Relotius between 2012 and 2014, in the newspaper published. “We try to be as transparent and clean as possible to work up,” says editor-in-chief Luzi Bernet. “In the age of “Fake News” is a case in point, of course, in addition to bad.” You should now be in a panic. “Most journalists are doing a very solid job.” The Daniel Puntas Bernet: “Our editorial work is based on trust. And is 99 percent of this trust is justified. Unfortunately, a black sheep is enough to give us all great harm.”
“lying press”
In the social media right Blogger with the desire to pounce on the case, Relotius. “Today is a good day. He exposes the lies of the press is lying, actually,” says Martin Sellner, one of the leading actors of the extreme right-wing Identitarian movement in Austria, in a Video on Youtube. There are countless such messages on the Internet.
that is Exactly why you should set as a Journalist, doing everything it can to create the greatest possible transparency about the type and manner of one’s own work, says “reports”-chief Puntas Bernet. This is, among other things, the goal of the festival, which takes place next year in Bern, and the reporters from all over the world tell the story of how se’s work. “This is the only way we the credibility problem can be solved.”
and nice work, if a Text an uneasy feeling. As the reader of the “NZZ Folio” is reported according to the Text on the Coiffeuse in Finland, confronted the editors Relotius. “He was acting very strange and became entangled in contradictions,” says Daniel Weber, editor-in-chief of the “NZZ Folio”. At the end of the Relotius had a View. Like he had for the book a hairdresser in Delhi, interviewed, wrote it after the events of the editors, but he was afraid the demand for his stories was likely to be covered. “He was, in fact,” says Weber. He ended the cooperation with Relotius.
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 21.12.2018, 06:27 PM
