German author who exposed media bias dies unexpectedly

The journalist and book author Udo Ulfkotte has died unexpectedly at the age of 56 years.

In 2014, the public became acquainted with his book “Purchased Journalists” in which he exposed the influence of the CIA in German mainstream media.

Ulfkotte sympathized with the Pegida movement and was critical of  Islamic ideas. The controversial author died after a heart attack.

He died on Friday dpa reported, according to information obtained from his family.

The political activist worked for many years as a journalist for the influential German daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

He later worked as a freelance journalist.

At a Pegida demonstration in Dresden, he spoke of the imminent Islamization, as pork had just been forbidden in German schools and kindergartens.

Ulfkotte also supported the popular theses of former Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin on migration problems and the excesses of Islam.

He told the Leipziger Volkszeitung in 2010 that the government was “spending insane sums on educating backward migrants”.

With his book “Purchased Journalists” Ulfkotte reached a large audience and landed on bestseller lists. The publication focused on his first-hand experience where colleagues were being paid to act as agents for the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

The revelation contributed to the growing loss of trust in the press in Germany.

He, too, admitted to being corruptible during his time as an employee of the FAZ. Ulfkotte described this in his book, suggesting that his colleagues maintained a dangerous proximity to elite networks, and claimed that government agencies such as the Bundesnachrichtendienst would openly dictate reporting. Ulfkotte worked for the FAZ from 1986 to 2003.

Various mainstream media outlets had denounced Ulfkotte’s allegations as “untrustworthy theories” and “conspiracy theories”.

Since 2008, Ulfkotte published mainly with Kopp publishing house, which offers a platform for many “conspiracy theorists and right-wing authors”, according to a mainstream hack, Stefan Niggemeier.