Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf (Science, D66) wants a hotline for endangered scientists to be established next autumn. He let us know on Saturday in an interview with the AD. The Science Safe hotline should be established following the example of the Press Safe, which was established in 2019, where threatened journalists can report.
Dijkgraaf says “with pain in the heart” that there is currently insufficient attention for the protection of scientists. The minister therefore wants a website, a reporting number and contact persons. He also believes that more research needs to be done on how scientists can stay safe, even if they interfere in the public debate. According to Dijkgraaf, the umbrella organization Universities of the Netherlands is currently setting up the hotline.
Also read this article about how scientists are increasingly become a target of conspiracy theorists
The minister’s initiative follows serious threats to, among others, RIVM director Jaap van Dissel and deputy head of Analysis of the NCTV Nikki Sterkenburg. Van Dissel needed 24-hour security for a while because he was threatened by three conspiracy theorists. They were jailed for several months.
‘Tip of the iceberg’
Dijkgraaf himself mentions the threat posed by Belgian virologist Marc van Ranst. Last year he was in hiding with his family for weeks because the soldier Jurgen Conings, who was manned and who later killed himself, had threatened to kill him. Van Ranst also received threats from the Netherlands.
Pieter Duisenberg, chairman of the association of universities VSNU, said in June 2021 to NRC that scientists have been intimidated and threatened more often and in a more violent tone since corona. According to him, the threats have “a huge impact” on scientists. Duisenberg also said the number of publicly known threats is just “the tip of the iceberg.”