The Dutch Public Broadcasting (NPO) plans to impose a new sanction on the broadcaster Ongehoord Nederland (ON). ON does not work well with other broadcasters and “the integrity and reliability of the system has come under heavy pressure,” the NPO reported on Tuesday afternoon.
The NPO points, among other things, to a controversial broadcast on September 15 of the ON program Unheard of News full of racist and discriminatory statements. At the beginning of July, the NPO already imposed a financial sanction on the broadcaster amounting to 2.5 percent of the annual budget for 2023, due to violation of the journalistic code of the NPO.
That it still seems to come from a sanction may be called a surprise. The government and broadcaster emphasized that they mainly wanted to follow the procedures. Those procedures were as clear as, according to some, cumbersome: the ombudsman of the NPO would deal with the complaints and issue a judgment within three months. The Media Authority would consider whether the Media Act should be applied here. Only then could the NPO impose a second sanction.
outrage
Presenter Raïsa Blommestijn used the n-word several times in the offending broadcast of mid-September, after the program had shown three alleged examples of “white racism”. The tenor: why do the media and the public react indignantly when black people are victims, and not when they are perpetrators in violent incidents?
Current affairs section pointer (KRO-NCRV) quickly showed that there was no racist motive in any of the examples shown. But the damage had already been done, it sounded in a chorus of indignation from politics and other broadcasters.
As with the first sanction in July, the following also applied: first the advice and then the judgement. Then politics could come into the picture. State Secretary Gunay Uslu (Culture and Media, D66) repeatedly emphasized that politicians cannot afford to judge the content. Only after a second sanction can she submit a request to revoke the broadcasting permit.
Even after the chairman of the KRO-NCRV Peter Kuipers in an interview against NRC had called for in no uncertain terms not to wait for the investigations and to take immediate action, all the forums in The Hague and Hilversum were unanimous in saying that due care is paramount in the process. The procedures must be followed.
But now, on Tuesday afternoon, the intention of the NPO suddenly came out to impose a second sanction on ON after all. The broadcaster still has two weeks to hear each other. After that, the sanction – a fine of up to 15 percent of the broadcasting budget – becomes a fact.
Uslu has not yet said whether it will act in this case and have the young broadcaster removed from the system. A spokesperson for the state secretary did respond that the NPO can now request the minister to revoke ON’s permit.
NPO ombudsman Margo Smit late NRC know that they have “no opinion” about the sanction. She will, however, continue handling the 1,700 complaints that followed the broadcast.
Stomach ache
A presentation about her work last Thursday at a press freedom meeting revealed how she struggled with her central role in this issue. “The idea of pulling out that whole broadcaster gives me a stomachache,” she said. “Then you would lose a huge group of civilians.”
Smit emphasized at the meeting, organized by a network for experts in the field of French language and culture, that it is the task of the judge to remove ON from the ether or not. “If the reporting of Ongehoord Nederland is contrary to the law, then the judge may do it,” said Smit. “I wouldn’t want this job if it were any other way.”
She also said that Ongehoord Nederland takes up too much of her time. More than half of all complaints it receives are about ON, which means that it has too little time for complaints about other broadcasters. Smit is not supported by a team of employees, but only has a part-time assistant, she said. Ultimately, handling complaints about ON is “more of the same”, according to Smit, and “I am here for all journalism”.
What Ongehoord Nederland, which in a statement on Tuesday referred to “bewilderment and incomprehension”, is accused this time, is not disinformation or racism but a lack of cooperation within the broadcasting system. The NPO stated on Tuesday that the “open external criticism and public concern about the lack of compliance” by ON with the “high professional and journalistic quality standards” ensures that “the execution of the public media mission of the NPO is threatened”.
It can be read as a rebuke for the lack of self-awareness that the broadcaster also displayed in the broadcasts after September 15. The broadcaster always maintained that there was no question of racism, but that ‘a significant part’ of the Dutch ‘want to be heard about topics that are important to them. As aspiring broadcaster, we do this in good conscience.”
The measure with the other broadcasters, however, appears to be so full that eventually a second sanction was accelerated. It will be announced in fourteen days whether it will hold.
Mmv Colin van Heezik
A version of this article also appeared in the October 26, 2022 newspaper