Article By Thomas Brooke
German public broadcaster ZDF has issued an on-air apology after its flagship news program, Heute Journal, aired a segment containing AI-generated footage depicting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arresting a migrant family.
The controversy followed the Feb. 15 broadcast, which ZDF said examined fears in parts of the United States over immigration enforcement operations. Viewers quickly noted on social media that portions of the footage were artificially generated, with an OpenAI Sora watermark visible on screen.
During Tuesday’s broadcast, ZDF deputy editor-in-chief Anne Gellinek addressed viewers directly, acknowledging what she described as a double editorial failure.
“And now on a matter concerning ourselves. Here on Heute Journal on Sunday evening, we broadcast a report that contained editorial errors, which we would like to correct here,” she said.
NEW: 🇩🇪🇺🇸 German public broadcaster ZDF's on-air apology for broadcasting AI-generated images of ICE agents arresting a migrant family in the United States.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 18, 2026
"We invest a great deal in providing you with verified information. We didn't manage to do that this time."
It also… pic.twitter.com/7xfqlWMUzM
Gellinek explained that while reporting on real ICE operations, the program had shown AI-generated material instead of authentic footage.
“When showing real operations carried out by ICE officers, the report displayed a video generated using artificial intelligence. The video was created with the AI tool Sora, as indicated by a watermark. The use of such AI-generated images violates the AI rules that are standard at ZDF,” she said.
She noted that ZDF guidelines prohibit the use of AI-generated images or videos depicting people or political events in news reporting. While AI-generated material can be shown when reporting specifically on AI fakes, she said this was not the case in the segment.
“Reports explicitly address AI fakes, but since this was not the case in the report, simply labeling it would not have been sufficient,” Gellinek added.
A second error occurred in the same report when footage believed to show an ICE operation was later found to depict a separate police operation from 2022. According to Gellinek, verification procedures for social media footage were applied too late.
“A double error, which we are now carefully reviewing, and which is particularly painful because we at ZDF News invest a great deal of effort to provide you with verified information. This time, we failed to do so. For that, I, as head of ZDF News, would like to expressly apologize to you, our viewers. This report did not meet our high standards,” she said.
The segment itself showed scenes of a woman and two children being escorted away by officers presented as ICE personnel, with agents at one point referred to as “troops” in the narration.
It remains unclear whether the AI-generated content was created internally or sourced externally and insufficiently verified before broadcast. ZDF has not provided details on how the material entered the production process.
The broadcaster later removed the AI-generated footage and replaced the segment in its online media library. The updated version now carries a note stating, “Video subsequently changed for editorial reasons.”
The incident has also revived debate over the funding and standards of Germany’s public broadcasting system. All households in Germany are required to pay a broadcasting fee of nearly €20 per month, financing networks including ZDF and ARD, amounting to several billion euros annually.
ZDF says it is reviewing internal procedures following the incident to prevent similar editorial failures in future broadcasts.
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