Two days after the Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting Corporation (RBB) retracted its reports on Stefan Gelbhaar, a Green Party member of the German Bundestag, the broadcaster has officially acknowledged its own mistakes.
According to RBB’s Chief Editor, David Biesinger, the corporation’s research team made an error. “Journalistic standards were not fully met in our research” he said on Sunday. The identity of the individual behind a sworn statement was not thoroughly verified by the editorial team.
The elaborate falsification of an identity, accompanied by a criminal intent, significantly contributed to the mistake, Biesinger added.
For weeks, the RBB had been reporting on alleged harassment claims against Gelbhaar, which he repeatedly denied and described as false. The broadcaster cited multiple women who had been spoken to and sworn statements, but a central document was later found to be a forgery. As a result of the pressure from within his own party, Gelbhaar ultimately renounced a candidacy for a good list position and also lost a pre-selected candidacy for a direct mandate.