The Hamburg magazine has taken several texts from the Internet because there are serious doubts about their truthfulness. A reporter may have fallen for fugitives who may have fabricated the death of a girl. The paper promises enlightenment.
The publishing house of the “Spiegel” in Hamburg.
It was a shocking story that the German magazine Der Spiegel presented to its readers in August. A Syrian girl is said to have died after a scorpion sting on an island in the border river Evros between Turkey and Greece in the summer.
The scandal: The 5-year-old could have been saved if the Greek authorities hadn’t refused her any help. “Death trap EU border”, was the name of a contribution. As in the case of the drowned boy Aylan Kurdi, the girl’s death seemed to once again convict Europe’s noble human rights rhetoric of lies and hypocrisy.
But there are serious doubts that it happened that way. Because: The girl could never have existed. At least that’s what the Greek government claims, which complained to the editor-in-chief of “Spiegel”, Steffen Klusmann, in September, just a few weeks after the article appeared. That reported the German industry magazine «Medieninsider» now. The NZZ had already reported at the end of August about the government’s doubts about the portrayal spread by “Spiegel” and other international media.
Reporter is said to have adopted the NGO’s point of view
The main accusation from Greece is that the “Spiegel” reporter uncritically accepted the description of the refugees and NGOs working on the Turkish-Greek border. According to the Greek government, only four children are said to have stayed on the river island – and they are all proven to be alive. The alleged parents of the child also do not know where the girl’s grave is, which is not very credible. In addition, they refused to consent to an exhumation, reports “media insider” the official Greek view.
This is opposed to research by the media that more children are said to have stayed on the island. The parents are said to have now agreed to an exhumation, as author Giorgos Christides claims on Twitter. Other people had also confirmed the existence of the girl. He has no reason to doubt the version of the girl’s parents. Christides has not yet been available for the NZZ.
Latest on the #Evros 38 case from the Greek Council for Refugees:
–@GCRefugeeslawyers have filed a request on behalf of the parents to the prosecutor to exhume the body of their 5-year-old daughter, who they have tested died on the islet 1/ https://t.co/OPGVGeEjFo— Giorgos Christides (@g_christides) October 12, 2022
The case cannot be decided from a distance. However, the Hamburg newspaper seems to be taking the information from Greece so seriously that on November 8, as a precaution, it took four texts by its employee Christides off the Internet. If you enter the relevant URL, you will find that there are doubts about the previous description of the events on the border river Evros.
“The case is extremely complicated,” said a spokeswoman for the “Spiegel” of the NZZ on Wednesday on request. The allegations are currently being examined internally by an ombudsman on behalf of the editor-in-chief and management. Then it will be seen whether the contributions would be published again in a corrected and updated form. It is hoped that the results will be available in December.
Admittedly, this is not a prejudice on the part of the author or even an admission of guilt by the paper. For the “Spiegel”, which has always boasted of its internal quality control, the case is problematic. After all, the reporter cannot quickly refute doubts about his version with conclusive evidence on the crucial point. As in the Relotius case, the internal control mechanisms could have failed again and not demanded enough evidence.
Memories of the Relotius case are awakened
The internal control was renewed in December 2018 after the Relotius case, which was announced by the “Spiegel” itself. Star reporter Claas Relotius had recently admitted in the face of overwhelming evidence that he had largely invented his stories, which were overwhelmed with prizes. The superiors had believed Relotius for a long time.
The stories about Trump supporters hunting people on the southern border of the United States, or about an encounter with a young Syrian whose dissident graffiti is said to have triggered the Syrian civil war sounded too good. The brilliant stylist Relotius apparently served the world views of superiors and readers alike with a maudlin sound. When in doubt, poetry had to help a reality that could not serve left-liberal expectations well enough.
After the exposure, efforts were made at the “Spiegel” to create structures that should prevent a notorious liar like Relotius in the future. However, the ideological environment that made it possible in the first place remained unexamined. That could now prove to be an oversight.