Appointment on Monday, November 6th, at 9.20 p.m. on Rai 3, with “Cinema Dossier – The Invented Truth”: an evening dedicated to the absolute premiere of “A Thousand Lines”, a German film by Michael Bully Herbig , which includes an in-depth analysis by Federica Sciarelli on the topic of “fake news” with Davide Desario (Italian journalist and author, director of the Adnkronos news agency) and Piero Iezzi (CEO and co-founder of Swascan, cybersecurity expert). A very current issue that concerns the manipulation of information, which has become increasingly sophisticated over time, also thanks to the use of social media and new technologies, and which seriously jeopardizes the fundamental right to rectification of information. Sciarelli, who has also dedicated a book to technological scams on the Internet, will discuss with her guests important topics such as verifying sources, the ability to distinguish truth from untruth, and the confusion that can sometimes be caused by misinformation in such a sensitive matter how the disclosure of medical information occurs.
Rather, “A Thousand Lines” is a fascinating story based on a true story: the case of journalist Claas Relotius from the German magazine “Der Spiegel,” who is exposed at the height of his brilliant career by his freelance colleague Juan Romero. His findings and investigations were based on fake news and manipulation of reality. In the film, which is based on the book of the same name by Juan Moreno, the Hamburg magazine “Chronik” commissions its top reporter Lars Bogenius to research Mexican migrants who want to cross the US border. When Bogenius emails the report from the United States to the editors, Juan Romero, a freelance colleague of his, notes that there is no physical evidence for the report. Juan discovers a possible scandal and informs the newspaper managers, who, instead of supporting him, decide to side with Bogenius: there is too much at stake. But Juan decides to continue his investigation to save his reputation and the credibility of the entire journalist profession.
It was not an easy decision for “Spiegel” to bring a piece of news concerning itself to the public on December 19, 2018: One of its best-known authors, winner of numerous journalism awards, had apparently manipulated or completely invented a big deal in his reports and his Interviews. This was arguably the biggest media scandal in Germany since 1983, when the famous magazine Stern published Hitler’s fake diaries.
“Cinema Dossier” is a joint project between the Advanced Studies Department and the Cinema and Television Series Department. “The Invented Truth – A Thousand Lines” is a film by Michael Bully Herbig, with Elyas M’Barek, Jonas Nay, Marie Burchard, Michael Ostrowski, Michael Maertens, Jörg Hartmann.