The journalistic scandal that triggered in Germany an article on the caravan of migrants en route to Mexico

The caravans of hundreds of Central American migrants crossed Mexico in 2018 with the goal of reaching the United States and accessing a better life. Journalists from around the world traveled to the border between the two countries to cover the migratory phenomenon and tell the story of those who had been ignored for so many years.

For months, the international media has covered the migration crisis, among them, the famous German weekly Der Spiegel. The impact of the event deserved to send his journalist star, Claas RelotiusAnd that's what happened. Nobody imagined that it would be the report that would unveil the biggest journalistic scandal of the last decades, which would shake the foundations of the German press and to open the debate in Europe on the responsibility and the ethic that implies the profession.

This is the article entitled "Jaegers Grenze", "The Jaeger Border", an Arizona militia in the United States dedicated to the persecution and murder of undocumented immigrants. The group was led by a man named Jaeger, to whom history takes its title.

For publication, made in November 2018, The magazine asked a second reporter, the Spanish Juan Moreno, to collaborate with Claas Relotius, one of his stars. For this, he was instructed to accompany a migrant to the border and count his trip; this story would join her with Relotius, who would cover the militia group.

Luckily Moreno discovered the editor-in-chief of the Der Spiegel. A simple copy of the text is enough to note several inconsistencies in the history of his colleague, which led him to undertake a search for the truth that led to the fall of a person and the creation of a research commission to badyze each publication produced by this character.

The fact that all is unleashed is that Relotius sends a draft in which appears a new final scene, in which a member of the militia fired at something that was moving, implying that he was a migrant.

"It is impossible for a good journalist to attend a similar scene and not to include it from the first moment", Jesús Moreno told the Spanish newspaper The country, who interviewed him during this weekend.

His suspicions were confirmed after he discovered an article published in the American press, which included a militiaman named Jaeger. Although the name matches, the rest of the story has not been. The photo I use in the publication either, from a documentary about guerrilla warfare Tim Foley.

Theon the border of Jaeger it was just the beginning of a scandal that would affect the entire German press, because in total, Relotius wrote 60 pieces for Der Spiegel and many others for different media.

The weekly had to "badume by default that all articles written by Relotius were fabrications"announced director Steffen Klusmann.

On December 22, 2018, the German weekly published a special issue entitled "Say what it is", words uttered by its founder, Rudolf Augstein. In this issue, 23 pages were devoted to the theme of Relotius; the editor had to accept his lack of professionalism not to have investigated the journalist when, on several occasions, he acted suspiciously.

The magazine has created an investigation commission that, to date, badyzes how is the accused "could falsify stories, invent protagonists, deceive colleagues and circumvent control systems of quality, and what changes in the organization should be adopted ", according to The country.

While the investigation is underway, all Relotius articles appear on the digital portal with a note that warns of possible fraud. In addition, It was reported that the reporter had asked the readers money, arguing that he was helping the victims of his reporting. The amount collected is unknown, but the defendant acknowledged through his lawyers that he donated all the money to various humanitarian causes.