André van Duin risks his image to protect his good friend Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. The presenter questions the Volkskrant investigation into his misconduct.
It is exactly why Matthijs van Nieuwkerk has been able to continue his misconduct behind the scenes of De Wereld Draait Door for years: old broadcasting bosses who keep each other’s hand above their heads. MAX boss Jan Slagter decided to downplay Matthijs’s misconduct last week before the publication of the Volkskrant investigation.
Stain on image
Jan, who called it ‘nonsense’ at HLF8 that Matthijs would have shown transgressive behavior, also screams bloody murder in talk shows that his colleague friend Frans Klein is also under fire. The television boss of the NPO has looked away from Matthijs’ misconduct for years and has temporarily resigned his position.
Ridiculous, Jan thinks it all. Now his biggest star, André van Duin (75), also appears to more or less dismiss Matthijs’s misconduct. And that will be a blot on his hitherto wrinkle-free image for many people.
André in the breach
André and Jan were in front of the RTL Boulevard camera yesterday when reporter Lex Uiting, one of the DWDD victims, asked him about Matthijs. The comedian then: “I have always enjoyed working there and I have never experienced the whole story that is now in the newspapers there.”
Matthijs is actually a very nice guy, says André. “I only know Matthijs as a very sweet, pleasant and nice man. Every now and then I eat a pancake with him and if I’m there in the show, I’ll be there at about six o’clock. You come in, you eat something and you sit down at the table. Then you have another drink and you leave.”
in doubt
André says he never heard anything about the misconduct. “I was not familiar with the whole circus and the stories that I now read and hear.”
In fact, André questions the entire five-month investigation into Matthijs’ misconduct and the statements of fifty former employees. He looks at it ‘with great disbelief’. “I just have to see what’s true of it, of course, don’t I? It becomes an oil slick, of course, it blows up. I don’t know what happened or didn’t happen.”
‘Just wait and see’
André gives the dozens of DWDD victims, who were not heard for years, a big kick. Lex in amazement: “Anyway, they spoke to seventy people, fifty of whom say that there was transgressive behaviour. You can actually assume that it was going on.”
The comedian persistently: “Something was going on, but what exactly was going on, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Well, André has earned a free pancake.
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Peter Vandermeersch also fully defended Matthijs, but has since apologized:
