The Van Rijn Committee has done thorough work with the report on inappropriate behavior at the national public broadcaster. But what now?
The results of the Commission of Inquiry into Broadcasting Conduct and Culture are not pleasant. Three quarters of employees have personally experienced or seen transgressive behavior.
Does this report only say something about the broadcaster? Initially: yes. But you can sense that this is a broader issue. After all, the NPO is not one organization, but a collection of broadcasters; islands between which bridges have been built to a greater or lesser extent. The fact that these types of problems are reported on all those islands makes one fear the worst.
There are characteristics of the work at the national broadcaster that can encourage misconduct and ignoring it. The top level, high pressure to perform, the visibility, the appeal of a certain glamour. But there are also many people working there who have short-term contracts and are therefore not sure of their jobs. Then you dare to speak out.
There are plenty of other industries that also demand a lot from employees and where people want to show the best of themselves. Where the pressure is high. But it is much less easy to get an idea of, for example, accountancy or the legal profession than of the NPO, which is partly financed by the government and functions as an umbrella organization.
You can see this report as a sign of the times. Managers are not only expected to provide guidance for a good end product, but also to be empathetic and to pay attention to mutual relationships. The ‘soft’ side is taken seriously.
One of the conclusions is that signals were not dealt with sufficiently professionally and decisively. And that exemplary behavior is important. This is not just about managers. At broadcasters, which are usually hierarchically fairly flat organisations, the daily program managers largely determine the manners in which they interact. They have power over the program and therefore over people. Not the Matthijs van Nieuwkerks, but the one below. They especially have to come along.
It is hoped that employees, at the NPO and beyond, will dare to speak out more quickly in the future. Then something would really have been gained.