Star Metro - German broadcaster recalls correspondent over AI-generated images

NYSE - LSE

CMSC	0.04%	23.92	$
BTI	1.78%	62.095	$
BCC	-3.17%	81.791	$
RIO	-0.34%	96.01	$
JRI	0.61%	13.13	$
RELX	0.96%	31.29	$
GSK	-1.5%	59.475	$
NGG	0.03%	90.3	$
BCE	-0.02%	25.565	$
RBGPF	0.12%	82.5	$
RYCEF	2.09%	18.18	$
CMSD	-0.08%	23.742	$
AZN	-0.58%	205.266	$
VOD	-0.03%	15.525	$
BP	-1.6%	37.905	$

German broadcaster recalls correspondent over AI-generated images

TECHNOLOGY 20.02.2026

German broadcaster recalls correspondent over AI-generated images / Photo: Tobias SCHWARZ - AFP/File

German public broadcaster ZDF on Friday recalled a New York correspondent after AI-generated images were screened during a news report on ICE immigration raids in the United States.

Text size:

ZDF said its journalist Nicola Albrecht, 50, used video taken from the internet in a report on children terrified by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement operations.

One clip was AI-generated and not labelled as such, and another in fact showed a Florida arrest from 2022.

"The damage caused by disregarding journalistic rules is considerable," ZDF editor-in-chief Bettina Schausten said in a statement. "At its core, this is about the credibility of our reporting."

Albrecht's original report broadcast on February 13 was accurate, ZDF said, but an updated version broadcast on the February 15 edition of the flagship nightly news programme contained the two misleading clips.

Presenter Dunja Hayali had introduced the segment saying the Trump administration's immigration raids had created "a climate of fear that doesn't even stop at children".

One clip could be seen to feature the watermark of Sora, OpenAI's platform that generates short video clips based on prompts.

"The AI-generated material should not have been used without journalistic justification and without being categorised according to ZDF's internal rules for the use of AI-generated material," the broadcaster said.

Journalists have been caught out before by synthetic content.

Publications including Wired and Business Insider in August withdrew features purportedly written by a freelance journalist following concerns they were in fact written using generative artificial intelligence.

In January, AFP factcheckers found that an image carried by ZDF purporting to show former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro after his capture by US soldiers was AI-generated.

V.Watson--SMC

Featured

India chases 'DeepSeek moment' with homegrown AI

Fledgling Indian artificial intelligence companies showcased homegrown technologies this week at a major summit in New Delhi, underpinning big dreams of becoming a global AI power.

India chases 'DeepSeek moment' with homegrown AI models

Fledgling Indian artificial intelligence companies showcased homegrown technologies this week at a major summit in New Delhi, underpinning big dreams of becoming a global AI power.

Nextech3D.ai's Eventdex Platform Powers AI Matchmaking for the SBA's CT Business Matchmaker Event Featuring Government Agencies and Major Prime Contractors

AI‑Driven One‑on‑One Matchmaking to Enhance Supplier-Buyer Connections at One of the Largest SBA Procurement Events in the NortheastNextech3D.ai's Eventdex Platform Selected to Provide AI Matchmaking for the SBA's CT Business Matchmaker EventAI‑Driven Supplier-Buyer Matching to Support One of the Largest SBA Procurement Events in the Northeast

NASA delivers harsh assessment of botched Boeing Starliner test flight

NASA on Thursday blamed what it called engineering vulnerabilities in Boeing's Starliner spacecraft along with internal agency mistakes in a sharply critical report assessing a botched mission that left two astronauts stranded in space.