RTL 4 is definitively throwing away the never-broadcast TV show Joling en de Buitenlanders, despite the fact that Gerard Joling has made recordings for it for no less than a year. “It’s going too far.”
Gerard Joling continuously wrote all kinds of critical columns about Islam until a few years ago. He indicated that he was afraid that there would soon be more mosques than churches in our country, was critical of ‘brats’ in asylum seekers’ centers and called for foreigners to take over our country. The PVV called him ‘brave’, others wanted to cancel him.
Joling and the Foreigners
In 2019, this led to the TV idea Joling en de Buitenlanders, a travel program about other cultures. After running for a year (!), the recordings came to an abrupt end in 2020 when the Black Lives Matter movement took off and the racism debate also exploded in our country after a broadcast of, then still, Veronica Inside.
After that racism, the singer feared that RTL 4 would censor his show considerably, but the channel promised not. Three months after the VI riot, broadcaster Peter van der Vorst indicated that the program was still coming. A week later Sylvana Simons opened fire on Gerard’s show, after which RTL the show on hold put.
Silent Gerard
Six months later, at the beginning of 2021, RTL announced that it would still broadcast Joling en de Buitenlanders, but under a different name. According to the station, the program had an important function. “As RTL, we think it’s important to make prejudices and stereotyping a topic for discussion. We want to connect and not polarize.”
In the end Gerard never got on the channel with this show. At the beginning of this year, Gerard said that he is no longer allowed to talk about it. “RTL has asked me not to talk about that. It was never finished, unfortunately.”
RTL throws away TV show
Peter van der Vorst now announces that Gerard’s TV show will definitively disappear unbroadcast in the trash. “A while back, with the best of intentions, we developed a program in which a presenter abroad should disprove the prejudices of the Dutch about that country,” he says. Women Inc.
He continues: “Something had already been shot, and the first edits were seen against the background of all social developments. We sat watching and said to each other, ‘What were we thinking?! This is really not possible.’”
‘It was educational’
Such television is no longer possible in 2022, according to Peter. “The program was not inclusive and the team that made it was not sufficiently diverse. We then took our responsibility and decided not to broadcast it. It was very instructive to admit that to ourselves.”
Gerard can currently be seen in the entertainment program Fout Maar Goud on RTL 4.
