A German televisionreporter has apologized after a video surfaced of her smearing mud on herselfahead of a broadcast from an area devastated by floods last week.
Video footage appearsto show Ms Ohlen bending down to scrape up mud and smear it on her clothes.
RTL presenter SusannaOhlen, 39, said it was a "serious mistake" to add mud to her clothesbefore reporting from the areas heavily hit by deadly floods in Germany.
"After I hadalready helped privately in the region in previous days, I was ashamed to standin front of the camera in clean clothes, in front of the other relief workers.As a result, without thinking twice, I smeared mud on my clothes," shesaid according to German news site DW's English translation of her Instagrampost.
"As ajournalist, this should never have happened to me. As a person who takes thesuffering of all those affected to heart, it has happened to me. I'msorry."
"The actions ofour reporter clearly contradict journalistic principles and our own standards.We therefore suspended her on Monday, after we learned of it," an RTLspokeswoman said on Thursday. RTL is one of Germany's largest privatebroadcasters.
Floods swept acrosscentral, western and southern Germany last week, leaving at least 165 peopledead and causing billions in devastating damage. The floods also raisedquestions over Germany's disaster management system and the futureimpacts of climate change.