A broadcast journalist has been suspended after she was caught apparently smearing herself in mud before filming a report in a German town devastated by flash floods.
Susanna Ohlen, 39, was captured on video muddying herself in the ravaged spa town of Bad Munstereifel, North Rhine-Westphalia, in the country where more than 177 people have died in the catastrophic flooding.
The reporter had featured in an RTL.de article with the headline: ‘Cleaning up after the flood: RTL presenter lends a hand in Bad Munstereifel’.
But footage was shared on social media by an onlooker who captured her bending down to grab mud and wipe it on her face and clothes before presenting the report.
Following online backlash, RTL took down the article and announced it had taken action to reprimand Ms Ohlen, who apologised for her ‘serious mistake’.
The channel said: ‘Our reporter’s approach clearly contradicts journalistic principles and our own standards.
‘We therefore gave her a leave of absence on Monday after we heard about it.’
Ms Ohlen issued a statement on her Instagram page telling almost 40,000 followers that she ‘made a serious mistake’ ahead of filming the segment for ‘Good Morning Germany’.
She continued: ‘After I had already helped privately in the region in the previous days, I was ashamed in front of the other helpers that morning to be in front of the camera in a clean top.
‘Then, without thinking twice, I smeared mud on my clothes.
‘As a journalist, I should have never done that.
‘As a person who cares about the suffering of all those affected, I did that. I’m sorry.’
Ms Ohlen is seen in the footage wearing a blue shirt, a white t shirt, a bucket hat, wellies and a glove, with her back to the camera.
The reporter bends down towards the rubble and appears to grab some mud and wipe it down her shirt.
She then bends down a second time, stands up, and wipes her face before turning to face her camera crew.
It comes days after the journalist took to Instagram and filmed herself, wearing a muddy yellow shirt, in the disaster zone urging people to help.
According to German news site, Merkur.de, she urged her followers who may have a ‘shovel at home or a wheelbarrow’ to help clean up efforts in the town.
She said in a clip: ‘Everyone lends a hand here, grabs a shovel.’
‘It hits me a bit more intensely because we have a holiday home here – two kilometers away – there is nothing thank god, but of course people stand together here, you help each other,’ she added.
Ms Ohlen is understood to have worked at RTL since 2008 and presents the popular news shows Good Evening RTL, Good Morning Germany, Point 12, and others.
Her apology comes after a senior German minister was caught on camera laughing during a speech in a town devastated by flooding.
Armin Laschet, 60, also apologised after he was caught joking in the background as Germany’s President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, delivered a statement about the victims in Erftstadt.
At least 177 people have died in Germany in the flash floods and 31 deaths were reported in Belgium, bringing the overall death toll to 208.
There are concerns the death toll will rise further as search teams continue to look through the rubble for those who are still missing.
Thousands of soldiers have been drafted in to help with the enormous clean-up efforts, while hundreds have lost everything after their homes and businesses were completely destroyed.
Authorities are still trying to work out the overall cost of the floods but they expect it to be around tens of billions of euros, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying the damage is ‘immense’ and will take a ‘long time’ to repair.
On Wednesday, Germany’s Cabinet approved a roughly €400 million package of immediate aid for flood victims.
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMidWh0dHBzOi8vbWV0cm8uY28udWsvMjAyMS8wNy8yMy9nZXJtYW4tcmVwb3J0ZXItY2F1Z2h0LW11ZGR5aW5nLWhlcnNlbGYtdG8tcHJldGVuZC1zaGUtaGVscGVkLWZsb29kLWNsZWFuLXVwLTE0OTc1ODkxL9IBeWh0dHBzOi8vbWV0cm8uY28udWsvMjAyMS8wNy8yMy9nZXJtYW4tcmVwb3J0ZXItY2F1Z2h0LW11ZGR5aW5nLWhlcnNlbGYtdG8tcHJldGVuZC1zaGUtaGVscGVkLWZsb29kLWNsZWFuLXVwLTE0OTc1ODkxL2FtcC8?oc=5
2021-07-23 06:01:00Z
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