Presenter and former ‘Jakhal’ Frank Evenblij has in his time The world goes on in his own words, often ‘screaming’ in front of the final editors of the talk show. He saw the hard culture behind the scenes and felt that this was not the right way to work.
That’s what he said tonight Beau. Frank found the revelations about the culture of fear caused by Matthijs van Nieuwkerk’s outbursts of anger ‘horrible’ and ‘a blow’. “There was a lot going on,” he said. Van Nieuwkerk never attacked Evenblij himself, but he saw with his own eyes what the atmosphere was like for others. “I had a really hard time with it,” he said. “I always noticed that a lot.”
He tried to intervene several times, according to Frank. ,,I often yelled at the editors, because I didn’t agree with working that way. I just didn’t believe that was the way to motivate people. I was 26 when I came in there, still young and vulnerable, so I couldn’t change that either.”
His colleague and former fellow Jackal Erik Dijkstra emphasized that it was different for them: they were faces of the popular talk show and would therefore not lose their jobs quickly. Frank also noticed this with the editors, who could not be seen on TV: according to him, they were happy when he said something, but it was less easy for them to do so.
Quote
I was 26 when I came in there, still young and fragile too, so I couldn’t change that either
‘hit like a bomb’
Evenblij and Dijkstra are both willing to cooperate in the investigation that is now being conducted into the abuses. ,,The article hit like a bomb”, said Dijkstra about his own feeling. “I recognized that very hard culture. I was mainly concerned with myself at that time, with my videos, that it was good, that it went well. (…) It’s not something I paid attention to myself back then: are all the colleagues doing well?”
The Jackals was a regular feature in for years DWDD. Dressed in black suits with a red tie, Evenblij and Dijkstra, among others, went through the country, often as brutal reporters.
Reported last week de Volkskrant after discussions with dozens of former employees of DWDD that behind the scenes a culture of fear prevailed for years due to transgressive behavior by Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. According to those involved, he had extreme outbursts of anger, in which employees were ‘shouted at, humiliated and intimidated’ in front of others.
The presenter left after the revelations at BNNVara, that DWDD made and where he still worked. The NPO has announced a major investigation. Frans Klein, in the DWDD-time media director at BNNVara and now NPO boss, has resigned his work pending the results. Today it was announced that BNNVara has invited all former employees of the show for an interview.
Read all articles about the abuses at DWDD in our file.
Also listen to the AD Media Podcast below or subscribe via Spotify or itunes. Find all our podcasts at ad.nl/podcasts.
Watch our Show & Entertainment videos below:
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss a thing of the stars.