ZDF has announced that it will take personnel action after discovering that forged footage was used in a segment for its “Heute‑Journal” program. During an internal review the network concluded that the violations of ZDF’s guidelines and established journalistic standards were severe enough to warrant the immediate dismissal of New York correspondent Nicola Albrecht, the sender said on Friday.
Albrecht had previously covered stories on the fears that children in New York have regarding ICE detentions for both the “Mittagsmagazin” and “Heute‑Journal” teams. In the version destined for the “Heute‑Journal” she incorporated two video clips she found online. One clip came from an unrelated context, while the other was entirely AI‑generated.
According to ZDF, the AI‑produced material should not have been included without a clear journalistic justification and proper classification in line with the broadcaster’s internal rules for AI content. Moreover, the other clip was not subjected to the required verification of its origin and authenticity. The final editorial team reviewing the segment should have flagged the machine‑generated sequence during the acceptance stage.
“The harm caused by violating journalistic rules is immense” said ZDF editor‑in‑chief Bettina Schausten. “At the core, this is about the credibility of our reporting. We are currently developing a comprehensive action plan to ensure, with full force, that the high journalistic standards to which we are committed are upheld at all times”.
