The Netherlands Public Broadcasting Foundation (NPO) will draw up an action plan “in the short term” together with all broadcasters “to ensure that there is a safe working environment for all employees of the public broadcaster at all times”. NPO chairman Frederieke Leeflang said this on Saturday after a conversation with the Dutch State Secretary for Media, Gunay Uslu.
The conversation came after the article that appeared in the Dutch Volkskrant on Friday about transgressive behavior in the TV program ‘De Wereld Draait Door’ (‘DWDD’) on the channel BNNVARA. “At the public broadcasters we are all very shocked by the large number of employees who have had negative and frightening experiences while working for the program ‘DWDD’”, says Leeflang.
“This should never have happened. This morning I spoke with Secretary of State Gunay Uslu about this and we both came to the conclusion that we need to find out quickly and thoroughly what exactly happened here and what we can do as a public broadcaster to prevent such things in the future.”
Concrete actions
The goal is to come up with “concrete actions”. “First of all, we do this for all employees of the public broadcaster; everyone who works in front of and behind the scenes on our programs. We also want to understand what exactly happened at ‘DWDD’, so that we can learn from this for the future.”
‘De Volkskrant’ spoke to more than fifty former employees of the talk show about “cross-border behavior” of 62-year-old Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, who was one of the best-paid presenters of the NPO for a long time. According to the employees, these were “extreme outbursts of anger and public humiliation”. Dozens of employees fell ill because of the working conditions.
Uslu already indicated on Saturday that he wanted to see an action plan from the NPO. “I have asked the chairman of the NPO to thoroughly investigate what happened here.”
READ ALSO:
Recordings Top2000 Quiz with Matthijs Van Nieuwkerk canceled after allegations of transgressive behaviour
No more Matthijs van Nieuwkerk on VTM
LOOK ALSO. Matthijs van Niewkerk would have literally made his employees sick through extreme tantrums and humiliations
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss a thing of the stars.