Jort Kelder appears not to be surprised by the stories about the misconduct of Bert Huisjes, his client at broadcaster WNL. “I also sometimes get messages that say: oh my god.”
After the revealing article by the AD, we all know that the journalists and presenters of broadcaster WNL are not free to say what they want on television. For example, criticism of CDA and VVD is out of the question, reveals former political editor Joost Bekendam. “In those cases we crossed the line into propaganda.”
Culture of fear
In any case, Jort Kelder is not afraid to express his opinion. He leaves in the On 1 last night it appears that the stories about the misconduct of WNL boss Bert Huisjes are not a complete surprise to him.
First he bounces the ball to his co-host Welmoed Sijtsma: “What everyone also thinks about is the message about the boss of this broadcaster, Bert Huisjes. He has been accused in the AD of creating a culture of fear. I am simply a freelancer, but Welmoed, you work here on a permanent basis and you were at the staff meeting.”
‘Very intense’
Welmoed keeps a somewhat low profile. “Yes, there were several meetings today. We thought: maybe it would be good to share something about it, because they were intense meetings. People were shocked, because people express spicy things in the newspaper. Bullying, intimidation, manipulation, pregnancy discrimination.”
She continues: “I think a lot of people are shocked. Bert also said he was shocked. He apologized. The boss of the Supervisory Board, Loek Hermans, reversed his earlier statements. At first they said they were lucky to have Bert and now they said that was not so convenient after all.”
A jerk
Jort then calls Bert a jerk. “Did he also admit that he can be a jerk? I mean: I’ve also received those texts from him that make you think: my god, what kind of text is this? But as a presenter I still have a position to say: ‘Hey, act normal for a moment.’ Of course, a younger employee does not have that. Did he admit that?”
Welmoed: “The story was that people did not really realize how certain things could come across and an apology was also offered for that. An investigation is now underway into what went wrong.”
Revolution
By the way, Jort says he has difficulty with it naming and shaming. “I find it complicated that these kinds of things all appear on the front page and in the News. It is a bit of a revolution that is going on.”
A revolution that is only happening because naming and shaming is apparently the only effective method. And that’s a real shame for it old boys network at WNL…