An Indian journalist strikes back at Der Spiegel

By Gerd Meissner In memoriam Helmuth Sethe, the late Editor-in-Chief of a small-town newspaper who had my back when I was a very junior newsroom intern and came under attack by German authorities for reporting on institutional racism. He was passionate about journalism, and he didn’t like bullies. I am in his debt. It is quite unusual that the senior Foreign Affairs editor of a once widely respected news magazine takes to his publication’s official blog and turns it into a bully pulpit. It’s even more unusual that he does so to besmirch the professional reputation of a junior writer with a rather small newspaper who accurately reported on an employment lawsuit against his magazine. What’s extraordinary in the case I am blogging about is that it involves employment lawsuits filed in two countries, with the potential of doing great damage to his publication. In most media companies with international operations and a reputation to lose, the PR department or a spokesperson will handle such matters, in close coordination with legal counsel. Not so, it seems to me, at Der Spiegel in Hamburg, Germany. The magazine has been taken to court, first in Germany and now with much high-profile publicity in India, by its former longtime Asia correspondent Padma Rao, a worldwide respected journalist whose stories were picked up by the New York Times. Der Spiegel Accused of Racism, Neo-Colonialism in India In Germany, Berlin-based daily newspaper “tageszeitung” (taz) was the only one daring enough to pick up the story. What followed were, in my opinion, misguided and unprofessional intimidation and bullying tactics against a diligent journalist who had her facts straight, by a senior Der Spiegel editor (and former Washington DC correspondent) who should have known better than dabbling as a corporate PR blogger. Only recently, Der Spiegel’s (fairly new) official editorial blog whined in a post titled “ Ein Watchblog als Pranger” (“A Watch Blog as Pillory”) about the use of German pharmaceutical PR blogs to publicly shame individual journalists, by countering their facts and opinions. Blogging Senior Editor as Hapless PR Henchman Just seven posts later, Der Spiegel’s “Auslandsressortleiter [Foreign Desk Senior Editor] Clemens Hoeges” turned Der Spiegel’s blog into its own version of pillory – with an all-out attack against taz journalist Jasmin Kalarickal. Media savvy blog commenter lowandorder was quick to label the post as an attempt to distract from the real story (“Nebenkriegsschauplatz”). Employment lawsuits brought by journalists are frequent and hardly news nowadays, not even in Germany. So what drives a respected foreign affairs editor into crisis PR blogging mode about a contract dispute? My personal take, based on limited inside knowledge (past and current): Organizational disfunction. And fear. Padma Rao’s lawsuit could indicate that there is a shoddy side to how Der Spiegel operates abroad, while over the past decade it faced an escalating leadership crisis at headquarters in Hamburg: it just lost both of its co-Editors-in-Chief. Globalization Home Stories for Goethe Institute Reading Rooms Der Spiegel is known for its colorful style, frequently mixing news, opinion and ideology. It is also known to roll out lengthy, teary-eyed feature stories by reporters stuck in 1968, who slam big corporations for wreaking neo-colonial havoc on developing countries. Well, American companies, that is. German companies? Not so much. Delhi-based Rao (Twitter: @PRaoSundarji), a breast-cancer survivor, was unceremoniously dumped by Der Spiegel after 14 years as its researcher, official India correspondent and bureau chief for South Asia when it finally occurred to her to ask for the same kind of social benefits and workplace security that had long been common even for junior foreign correspondents at the magazine. Der Spiegel’s former South Asia correspodent Padma Rao: She says it’s been a good run before things turned sour after ten successful years with the magazine. Since then, she says, she has experienced “astounding racial discrimination and neo-colonial arrogance”. Photo: Sanjay Rawat for Outlook When a court in Der Spiegel’s hometown of Hamburg dismissed her lawsuit, the irony was not lost on media outlets and bloggers in Asia. “Neo-colonial attitude,” the “ Hindustan Times.” quoted a former German radio correspondent in Delhi. Indian newspapers and media watch blogs, sensitized by violent anti-“foreigner” incidents in Germany, suspect “racism” – justifiably so, maintains Rao, given the language Der Spiegel has used in a letter to her. This is Hamburg, Not India. Go Away. In German media, with the exception of taz: mostly silence. That doesn’t surprise anyone familiar with the dominant role of Der Spiegel in “traditional” journalism in Germany. taz journalist Jasmin Kalarickal, daughter of Indian immigrants to Germany, should be commended. But no word on the sorry affair, either, from the two alpha bloggers who can usually be counted on for insightful (or snarky) commentary on the online activities of German media: business-journalist-turned-communications-consultant Thomas Knüwer (“ Indiskretion Ehrensache”) and Stefan Niggemeier. The latter was out on a break and is under contract at Der Spiegel anyway, as it happens. Senior editor Clemens Hoeges, in his blog post on behalf of the magazine, didn’t dispute the facts reported in the taz story. Instead, he leashed out against the journalist who reported it, and who had one her homework way below his own pay grade. He flat-out accused her of unprofessional behavior. What was Jasmin Kalarickal’s alleged infraction? Following their initial email communication, the reporter decided not to take Hoeges up on his invite to have a—confidential—phone conversation. Hoeges offered a chat that would have been subject to confidentiality (“Vertraulichkeit”). In lay terms: call me, but you won’t be able to quote or otherwise use anything from our conversation. Call Me, Maybe, I’d Like to Waste Your Time. The taz journalist, who by that time had all the facts she felt she needed for her story, took a pass. That’s what busy journalists do, including at Der Spiegel, when they don’t have time to waste on idle chit-chat with a source who is unlikely to add anything new or substantial. Disclosure: I knew and respected Clemens Hoeges as a hard-charging fellow editor during my time at Der Spiegel’s print magazine (and as co-founder of Spiegel Online in 1994). Almost two decades have passed since. At the time, we were mentored by senior editors with respect for reporters who had their facts straight and were not easily intimidated. Those editors would have been appalled at the thought of one of their own filling in for Der Spiegel’s spokesperson, and tearing into fellow journalists just doing their job with another publication. Fast forward to 2013: With sadness, I watch how the same Clemens Hoeges, now one of the editors overseeing the magazine’s network of foreign correspondents around the globe, metes out Der Spiegel’s own new blog brand of “crisis communication” against a fearless junior journalist: smack ‘er hard, and put ‘er on the pillory, as a warning for other potential troublemakers to see. Der Spiegel decided to put the non-conforming journalist on the magazine’s blog pillory. It All I see is Clemens Hoeges at Der Spiegel who has lost his way as a journalist and gone off his rocker in a cheap-shot blog – for what? Granted, the situation was exacerbated by an error caused by one of tageszeitung’s desk editors (NOT by Jasmin Kalarickal). It since has been corrected, and the publication has apologized. This would have been a good opportunity for the Spiegel blog to use the advantages of the medium to retract its ad hominem attack against the journalist. In my experience, both as a former journalist and Public Affairs / PR professional, the “all-hands-on-deck” approach to crisis communication via social media is doomed to fail without addressing the cause of a problem and without a comprehensive outreach strategy. In an Indian court, Padma Rao now demands, as she writes in an email, “fair and just compensation for exactly 14 years of non-payment of pension, health insurance, social security, annual bonuses, withholding of shares in the company, re-selling my stories online for free, ‘unfair dismissal’ by lying to me about closing down operations in India […].” The total amounts Euro 180.000, calculated based on the compensation of comparable Der Spiegel correspondents. Advice to Hamburg, aus alter Verbundenheit: Angst in the face of 21st-century globalization is not a PR strategy. Nor is Teutonic arrogance in internal cross-border communication, or intercultural ham-fistedness. What’s Wrong With Bashing the Bearer of Bad News in a Blog? Everything, in my view of this case. Contrary to common misperceptions, (former) journalists often fail when trying their hand at crisis communication. Most globally operating German “Mittelstand” companies, small and large, seem to know that better than Der Spiegel. What I find striking is that the story taz reported has all the ingredients of a bigger PR mess in the making. It has already damaged the magazine’s image and reputation abroad, judging by the media echo on the Asian subcontinent. Der Spiegel’s blog pillory, that’s the good news, did not attract any cheering crowds. With all the “draw” of Der Spiegel’s supposedly strong brand, Clemens Hoeges’ blog post managed to accumulated only three comments, two of them critical of the post. 22 “Likes” on Facebook? Let’s just say they probably weren’t media-savvy enough to read between the lines. The taz story, on the other hand, has attracted international attention. (They should probably consider filing such pieces in English.) “One wonders if der Spiegel readers are actually evolving more quickly than the staunch old guard,” reader Dr. Diepiriye Kuku-Siemons commented (in English) on the tageszeitung’s website. I have stopped wondering a long time ago, but would be interested in your view. Comment section is open. P.S. A lower deck hand at Spiegel Online felt compelled to promote Hoege’s blog post on Twitter, referring to the Taz story as “strange” (German: “sonderbar”). When I caught him out in the open, I asked him what he meant, in German. Here’s how it went: Another community outreach hobbyist running wild. Bottom line translation: “I could say more about it, but really prefer not to.” I wonder why? Reproduced with permission from Gerd Meissner, Author, Writer, Social Media & Communications (bilingual English / German). Gerd Meissner is the co-founder of Spiegel online and is a very well-known journalist and commentator on international affairs based in Los Angeles.