Amelanders see in the group app: PowNed is on the ferry

Councilor Rudolf Teuben likes to use big words. But he means it. The island is “shaking to its foundations,” says the Ameland councilor ’82 over coffee at home. Suddenly everyone was talking about their mysterious party, and no Amelander wants that. Because you’re not actually talking about Sunneklaas. “But maybe we should give away a little of the mystery. Unfortunately, PowNed has achieved that.”

It all starts on the pier, Tuesday afternoon, December 5. It’s already dark. The Amelanders are on edge, because PowNed has kept its word: the broadcaster will film at the private party. The reporter and a cameraman were seen on the ferry, the license plate of the car soon appeared in a group app of Ameland men. Two of them, anonymously, tell the story a week later NRC how they become involved in chasing and harassing the PowNed journalists.

With cars and a tractor, they form a funnel for the traffic driving off the car deck. The Amelanders want to make it clear that things will end badly for journalists if they go onto the island with the camera running. It is also clear that they do not shy away from intimidation a video from earlier today. In it, three young vloggers are kindly but threateningly asked to leave the island. “You are being surrounded from all sides, you will not survive,” they are told. The young men take the ferry back.

Carried along for meters

The PowNed crew comes with the last ferry service from Holwerd. Five men crowd around the car, one of the islanders immediately crawls onto the hood and bangs on the windshield. Then the PowNed driver accelerates, you can see on images of one of the group members. The man on the hood is carried several meters and injures his ankle when he lets himself slide off. He will later report charges of assault and attempted manslaughter.

PowNed’s visit to the traditional Sunneklaas festival became national news a week ago. After the incident on the pier, the reporter, a cameraman and a security guard (also a driver) were chased in cars by islanders, as can be seen on images which the broadcaster puts online the next day. The journalists were met at various places and the attackers allegedly also tried to ram their car.

“You keep your paws away from journalists,” said outgoing minister Dilan Yesilgöz (Justice and Security, VVD) last Friday. She did not go into detail about the role of the police opposite PowNed: the investigation is still ongoing.

“Maybe we should give up a little of the mystery”

PowNed immediately criticized the police’s actions. “Only when I called Yesilgöz did they take action,” claims broadcasting director Dominique Weesie. According to the police, timely action was taken by separating “the parties involved” on the spot. The police in the Northern region did not want to take a report on the evening itself. Reports have now been filed “on both sides”. From PowNed against the group of men. But the islanders are also angry because the PowNed car allegedly rammed into people. “We take this investigation very seriously. If journalists cannot do their work and there is a conflict situation, freedom of the press is at risk,” the police said in a statement.

The incident is reminiscent of the aggression that journalists faced during the corona pandemic. At that time, a photojournalist in Lunteren, car and all, was pushed into a ditch by a shovel, journalists were attacked at churches in Urk and Krimpen aan den IJssel and a Groningen city blogger had Molotov cocktails thrown through his window after reporting on a corona demonstration. . PowNed initially doubted whether it would put the images of the incident online. “People see this and think: this is a license to do this even if I disagree with something,” said PowNed journalist Mark Baanders on the talk show Renze.

Misogynistic

At the bakery in Hollum, the Sunneklaas incident is still the talk of the town a week after the commotion. The radio had called, 3FM. Could someone explain what sunneklaas meant? “We dance and do the polonaise,” one of the bakers had said. “I immediately threw in the hook,” her colleague says now. They don’t want to give names – you don’t talk about the party with outsiders.

The party, actually a game, has rules that are poorly related to fundamental rights. In the village of Nes, women are not allowed to go outside after five o’clock in the afternoon on December 4 and 5. Then the village is ‘swept’ by men wearing white sheets and cow horns who sound them across the island in the pitch dark. When the streets are empty, groups of men can put on their suits unnoticed. In ‘huuskes’, group accommodations on the island, the women dance with dressed-up men who pass by.

The game takes place outside. When those men walk outside and encounter another group, they growl and shake each other’s hands vigorously. It’s called ‘feeding’.

Sometimes someone under the age of eighteen is hidden in a suit. If your suspicion is correct and you mention the correct name, the game ends for the teenager and he has to go home. If you pick out a woman among the men, it’s over for her too. This sometimes involves tapping with a stick, according to rumors. A woman from Hollum has therefore never dared to join a group of disguised men, she says. “I don’t feel like having a blue butt.”

Hotels, restaurants and shops are closed during Sunneklaas. The message to tourists and other mainlanders: don’t come. But the party largely takes place on the street. And then public broadcaster PowNed becomes a principle, because filming is allowed in public spaces.

Very dangerous

However, PowNed is late in his report its own role in the tumult of that evening remains unmentioned, the islanders say. “They were doing something life-threatening themselves,” says one of the men about the PowNed driver driving through with a man on the bonnet.

After the crowd at the pier, the men get into their cars and the chase begins. They drive in front, behind and next to the car with the PowNed crew. It doesn’t stop. At an intersection in Nes something goes wrong with an oncoming car, which belongs to the group that PowNed wants to enclose. “Wow, we’re being hit!” says reporter Parsa in the item. The impact is audible. Later in the report he shows a dented right flank and major scratches.

NRC also saw other images showing the PowNed car in this collision. There appears to be little contact with the oncoming car. The police would also have these images. A few islanders point out a crooked pole in Nes: that is believed to be the cause of the damage.

Also read
PowNed is reporting the Ameland ‘fighting squad’ that wanted to prevent coverage of Sunneklaas celebrations

Can this be correct? Broadcasting director Weesie reacts furiously. “They start about a post? Scandalous.” He maintains that they are “rammed.” This is also stated in a letter that PowNed lawyer Jens van den Brink sent to the Public Prosecution Service on Tuesday evening. He complains because the damaged lease car “to PowNed’s knowledge” has not been examined. “While this investigation could quite easily have led to a match with the car that rammed into them.” The Public Prosecution Service will not comment on this, but will answer the lawyer, says a spokesperson.

‘Moral support

Why did the men give chase? The goal, two of them say, was to force PowNed to stop. The fact is: the police are about public order, not them. “What would you do if your buddy fell off the hood?” says one of them.

“This should have been different,” says councilor Teuben. But he did express his “moral support” in the city council on Monday evening for the men who, in his view, stood up for tradition. “From U.S. all.” He hopes that the mayor will follow his lead. For the first time in history, the private Sunneklaas celebration is discussed in a council meeting, due to his questions. “Not everyone appreciates that,” says Teuben. “But we have to do something. because this is not going to end well.” He sees a broader trend: “Authentic Netherlands is handing over more and more cultural-historical traditions. Is our party next?”

Mayor Stoel says that support in any form “would not be appropriate”, now that the investigations are still ongoing into the Amelanders involved. He also sees no way for the municipality to protect the party against outside influences. “In fact, there are not many measures to take unless it continues in private.”

How further? Peace and quiet around Sunneklaas is all the Amelanders want. But Dominique Weesie does not have good news for the island. “We’ll be back,” he says emotionally. “With ten camera crews. And drones.”

Reading list




Email the editor