Abroad exists (except in the Netherlands)

Also read: Where does the Dutch disinterest and arrogance towards foreign countries come from?

In addition to more explanation – luckily there is news hour – I also miss the view of the big outside world on the TV news. Jihadism is advancing in Africa, a horrific war has been going on in Yemen for years, millions of people in Hong Kong have lost their freedom and have been annexed by the Chinese dictatorship, Spain and Portugal are experiencing the worst drought in decades, and that in the middle of the winter. Even the reservoirs are drying up. The only significant foreign news that really gets through to us is the impending Russian invasion of Ukraine. Although we became aware of that danger in the Netherlands relatively late, foreign news channels followed the Russian troop build-up with suspicion much earlier.

Without prejudice to the seriousness of our national problems – dickpics, insecurity around MPs from PvdA and Volt, the lack of empathy of John and Linda de Mol for the victims of The Voice – in the Netherlands it sometimes seems that there is no foreign country. The only foreign country that does it for us now and then is the United States. Fortunately, there is a little more attention for Brussels these days, but that is actually also about ourselves. We follow the large European neighboring countries a little bit. The rest of the world only interests us when things get completely out of hand.

I sometimes envy the TV news in France, Germany or England. Even the news bulletins in Turkey spend a lot of time on all the surrounding countries and on the economic superpowers in the world besides the United States.

Now I certainly do not belong to the group that daily shouts on social media that some premeditated topic is not on the NOS News This is because it does not suit the established order. For a long time, that group said that the yellow vests from France received too little attention, or recently the Canadian truckers. Apart from the sometimes obligatory news about our royal family, independence is not the problem of our national news provider. It is the increasingly strong focus on the small, the small, the centralization of the suspected wishes of the ‘common man’. And so Ali B instead of the Sahel, the dickpic calendar of two Limburg girls above the tensions in the South China Sea.

I seriously wonder whether that populist focus will benefit the newscasts – and also the many talk shows, for that matter. In the meantime, I know too many people around me who haven’t watched any news or news talk shows at all for a few years. Also people who are in the middle of society, who work or study. One reads some facts on the internet and that’s it. To re-engage those disengaged groups, it’s time for the newscast to renew itself. More background, more explanation, more foreign countries – and not just the disasters, but also the structural developments that are changing the world outside the Netherlands.

Dear news makers at the NOS, I just want a much longer news broadcast on TV. Without voxpops, with in-depth background reports and analyses, with at least half of foreign news and that weather forecast could be a bit shorter. And not just at 8 p.m., but also during the day. Check out how they do it in France, with a news on France2 lasting almost an hour at 1pm. Also look at ZDF, WDR or ARD. Even to the BBC if necessary, although that is probably the only foreign broadcaster you look at when someone says that things have to be improved.

And if in doubt, cling to an investigation shortly after the Capitol storming last year: three quarters of the Dutch still consider good independent journalism essential for the functioning of democracy. Just dare: less Hazes, less Máxima, more Yemen, Mali, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Africa, Iran, India and the rest of that 99.9 percent of the world that lies outside the Netherlands.

Aylin Bilic is an entrepreneur and publicist.