Satirical TV show host Jan Böhmermann claims he doctored footage to make it look as if Greek finance minister made offensive gesture

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A German TV presenter has admitted to faking a video showing the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, giving the middle-finger gesture to Germany, after the politician vehemently contested its authenticity.

Jan Böhmermann, host of the satirical programme Neo Magazin Royale on public broadcaster ZDF, said he had been waiting since Sunday for someone to ask him if he had faked the controversial footage, but no one had.

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“Sorry, Mr Varoufakis, we won’t do it again,” Böhmermann said, claiming to detail how a production team had manipulated the video.

The footage showed Varoufakis in 2013, before he became finance minister, speaking at an event in the Croatian capital of Zagreb. Varoufakis talks about the problems facing his debt-laden country, and says “stick the finger to Germany” as he appears to make the gesture.

Greece and Germany, Europe’s paymaster, have been at loggerheads since Greece’s Syriza party came to power in January on promises of ending austerity and erasing most of the country’s massive debt.

The footage, originally shown during the Günther Jauch weekly talk show on Germany’s ARD channel late on Sunday, prompted an immediate and vehement rebuttal by the Greek minister, who was a guest on the programme.

Varoufakis, who took part in a live discussion with other guests via a link from Athens, insisted on air that the video had been “doctored”.

Jauch’s show, which draws millions of viewers, said on Monday it had seen “no indication whatsoever of manipulation or falsification in the video shown during the live show”.

However, Böhmermann said on Wednesday his team had doctored the footage in late February, and described manipulating shadows to make the changes more realistic. ZDF did not confirm his statement.