Germany’s Der Spiegel says star reporter Claas Relotius wrote fake stories ‘on a grand scale’
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A top European news magazine has fired one of its star journalists after discovering that he had fabricated facts and sources in more than a dozen articles over a seven-year period.
“Claas Relotius, a reporter and editor, falsified his articles on a grand scale and even invented characters, deceiving both readers and his colleagues,” Germany’s Der Spiegel said in an article published online Wednesday.
The startling revelation is a heavy blow to Der Spiegel, a 71-year-old publication that’s renowned for its quality journalism and read by hundreds of thousands of people in print and by millions online.
“I’m so angry, horrified, shocked, stunned,” the magazine’s deputy foreign editor Mathieu von Rohr tweeted. “Claas Relotius faked, he cheated all of us.”
His work had received awards from CNN, but a CNN spokesperson said, “Relotius was not associated with CNN, he never worked for the company and never had anything published on CNN platforms.”
He also penned a feature for Swiss magazine Reportagen, for which he received two CNN Journalist Awards in 2014, including Journalist of the Year. The CNN Journalist Awards were for German-language journalism and decided by an independent jury. The last awards were given in 2015.
A spokesman for CNN said Thursday that the 2014 awards jury held a meeting after Der Spiegel went public with its investigation, and voted unanimously to strip Relotius of both awards.
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