After fake tweet in “Explosive”
RTL separates from Maurice Gajda “with immediate effect”.
RTL has separated from reporter Maurice Gajda.
© imago images/Panama Pictures
RTL separates from reporter Maurice Gajda. He had used a fake tweet for an “explosive” show.
RTL apologizes to Frauke Petry
Internal checks revealed serious misconduct by Gajda in the creation of the article, “which is incompatible with the journalistic principles and guidelines of our company,” according to the RTL statement. It had been checked whether the replica tweet had ever existed, but “no indication of it was found”.
Martin Gradl, co-managing director of “RTL News”, apologizes to Frauke Petry and explains: “We got to know Maurice Gajda as a committed and passionate reporter. In this case, however, there are numerous blatant violations of journalistic due diligence.”
Alleged tweet about the ESC
In a post entitled “Life between two worlds in Germany”, Maurice Gajda spoke to singer Trong Hieu Nguyen, among others, who took part in the German preliminary round for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023. The post addresses an alleged tweet by Petry that reads: “I don’t think any normal German wants to see a pink-colored Asian at the ESC.” According to Gajda, the tweet was deleted again.
Petry then fought back on her X account: “RTL impressively demonstrates how to deal with politically uncomfortable people. You think up a racist tweet, a graphic designer implements it and the fake is done.”
There was actually another tweet from Frauke Petry about the ESC. “Can’t imagine that normal citizens want to be ‘represented’ by these pink gentlemen,” she wrote in March 2023, but about the German ESC participants Lord of the Lost. She then deleted the tweet.