******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ********************
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*****************************************************************
NY Times, Feb. 17 2017
Bild Apologizes for False Article on Sexual Assaults in Frankfurt by
Migrants
By MELISSA EDDY
BERLIN — The German mass-circulation daily Bild has “emphatically”
apologized to its readers for an article that said a “mob” of Arab men
had sexually assaulted women on New Year’s Eve in a Frankfurt
restaurant, after the police said that an investigation had failed to
turn up any evidence.
The accusations carried echoes of genuine attacks on New Year’s Eve a
year earlier, and Nadja Niesen, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in
Frankfurt, said on Thursday that the authorities had opened a
preliminary investigation of two people suspected of fabricating a crime.
In its Feb. 6 report, Bild, the most widely read newspaper in Germany,
quoted Jan Mai, the owner of a cafe in downtown Frankfurt, as saying
that 50 “Arab-looking men” had assaulted women on Dec. 31. It also
quoted a woman it identified only as Irina A., 27, who said she had been
among those who were groped “everywhere” by the men.
The article mirrored a high-profile episode in Cologne a year earlier,
when hundreds of women reported being robbed or sexually attacked on New
Year’s Eve, some by groups of migrants and newly arrived asylum seekers.
The Bild report from Frankfurt was picked up by other outlets and was
widely shared on social media. More than a week later, after the
Frankfurt police and other news organizations cast doubt on the
allegations, Bild conceded that the attacks described in the article
“did not take place,” and it removed the article from its digital platforms.
“The editorial staff of Bild emphatically apologizes for this untrue
report and the allegations that it made against those concerned,” the
newspaper said in a note published online on Tuesday that cited the
police findings and pledged an internal review. “This reporting in no
way reflects the journalistic standards of Bild.”
Bild has a daily circulation of 2.5 million and often sets the tone for
political discussions in Germany, and the decision by prosecutors to
open an investigation reflects broader concerns in the country about the
spreading of false stories and anti-immigrant or anti-European propaganda.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, under whose leadership Germany admitted
890,000 asylum seekers in 2015, is seeking a fourth term this year. Both
she and her refugee policy have been the subjects of false news reports
and base insults, which officials worry are aimed at whipping up fear
and at shifting perceptions before the vote on Sept. 24.
Marcus Pretzell, a member of the far-right party Alternative for
Germany, described the 12 victims of a truck attack on a Christmas
market in Berlin as “Merkel’s dead” on social media.
Separately, a report in the Russian news media claimed that a
Russian-German teenager had been raped by refugees, setting off protests
by Russian-speaking Germans who said they felt unsafe, and spreading to
the highest levels of diplomacy before the accusations were questioned
seriously enough to dampen their spread.
Other newspapers, including the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung and the left-leaning Taz, had swiftly published articles
questioning the claims in the Russian report. But they were not accepted
as false until the police discovered that the teenager had been with her
boyfriend at the time of the alleged assault.
The Frankfurt police initially disputed the Bild article on the New
Year’s Eve attack, saying that they had no reports of such events that
night. On Tuesday, they said that an investigation of testimony by the
owner of the cafe and by a woman who said she had been assaulted had
failed to turn up any evidence.
“The questioning of the named witnesses led to considerable doubt about
the events described,” the Frankfurt police said in a statement on
Tuesday, adding that they were examining whether those who fabricated
the accusations could be asked to pay for the cost of the investigation.
Mr. Mai could not be reached on Thursday. Both his personal Facebook
page and that of his cafe appear to have been taken down.
_________________________________________________________
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at:
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
