Claim: Hajo Seppelt, who has worked as a sports reporter and public broadcaster, was removed from his job when he criticized his company ARD, which was founded in West Germany in 1950.
Evidence: Since 1985, Seppelt has worked as a sports reporter for Germany's premier public broadcaster ARD. After working for many years as a live commentary for swimming events for ARD, he was stripped of this duty in the early summer of 2006. Seppelt said that this was in reaction to a private email, in which he criticized ARD's uncritical reporting on doping, becoming public. It was founded in 1950 in West Germany to represent the common interests of the new, decentralised, post-war broadcasting services – in particular the introduction of a joint television network.