ZDF Apologizes for Broadcasting AI-Generated Content Without Labeling

German public broadcaster ZDF is grappling with a serious trust crisis after using materials generated by artificial intelligence in its prestigious news program 'heute journal'. The incident concerned the February 15, 2026 edition, which illustrated a report on the actions of the U.S. agency ICE. Viewers saw a video sequence that was not a recording of real events but a digital creation downloaded from the internet. Crucially, this material was not labeled in any way as computer-generated graphics, violating the station's journalistic standards. In recent years, the development of generative technologies has led to the emergence of so-called deepfakes, forcing the world's largest editorial offices to develop systems for verifying content authenticity. German public broadcasters such as ARD and ZDF have long positioned themselves as bastions in the fight against disinformation, which amplifies the impact of the current scandal. Deputy head of the editorial team and program host, Anne Gellinek, described the event as a 'double error.' The first concerned the decision to use an unverified source, and the second was the lack of required information for the audience. The station responded by removing the controversial segment from its media library and replacing it with static images in a corrected version of the material. Criticism of the station comes not only from outraged viewers but also from political circles. The Minister for Media of North Rhine-Westphalia, Nathanael Liminski, who sits on ZDF's supervisory board, commented on the matter. He emphasized that the credibility of public media is their most valuable asset and that this incident requires thorough explanation by the supervisory structures. „This material does not meet our standards and should never have been broadcast in this form.” — Anne Gellinek The case has sparked a broader discussion on the ethics of using algorithm-generated images in news journalism. ZDF declared that it will conduct an internal investigation to determine how the material passed through the approval process. Experts indicate that this case may become a pretext for tightening regulations regarding the transparency of media content across Germany. Station representatives announced that henceforth, any synthetic content will undergo multi-stage verification before publication to avoid similar embarrassments in the future.