The editors-in-chief of NOS Sports will make way for “new leadership”. This decision follows an inventory by an external confidential counselor of bullying behavior in the sports editors, transgressive behavior and the inadequate approach to this in the past twenty years. There would be dozens of reports that led to the conclusion that “the focus has been on the end result and not enough on the human aspect,” says NOS.
Maarten Nooter has been in the editor-in-chief of NOS Sport since 2002 and has been editor-in-chief since 2004, where he manages approximately 170 employees. He says he wants to make room for a successor, but not immediately. The “continuity” of sports coverage must be guaranteed, he says in a press release. As soon as an external consultancy has mapped out how the organization can make a culture change, it is time for ‘new leadership’ and ‘we, as editor-in-chief, make room for that’.
Bullying behaviour, (sexual) harassment, discrimination
It NOS press release states that the inventory report contains reports of ‘bullying behaviour, (sexual) harassment, discrimination, verbal aggression and integrity issues’. No actual investigation has been carried out into the reports, but the picture that emerges, according to NOS director Gerard Timmer, is sufficient to recognize the need for a cultural change. “These are experiences we want to acknowledge and apologize for.” Notifiers may themselves indicate whether the independent, external complaints committee should investigate reports of transgressive behavior on the basis of facts.
After the revelations about the program The world goes on the editors-in-chief issued an internal appeal, after which many old sores surfaced among people who have been treated unfairly by colleagues in the past. The Volkskrant reported on the basis of available sources that in a meeting in December Nooter was confronted by employees about a lax attitude towards transgressive behaviour. It DWDD-story of de Volkskrant appeared just before Nooter left for Qatar for the World Cup, but when he returned, his editors were very uneasy. He recognized that under his leadership there were “things that were not right,” that “cynicism” and “manners” created a “different atmosphere” in the evenings than during the day. Also that “it is not easy for women to be in our editorial office”. He acknowledged that “we may have acted insufficiently”, but that it was not always possible to communicate if action had been taken against someone.
In addition to the ‘Management’ policy that was adopted in 2020, the NOS (also the News and Events departments) has been working on the inclusivity program since last September, according to director Timmer. Collaborate on difference, of which manners are a part. NOS Sport was also working on this, and according to the press release, many colleagues also reported that improvements had been made in recent years.
More investigations into abuses
Due to the abuses DWDD the NPO board has asked Martin van Rijn, former Minister for Medical Care (PvdA), to conduct research into cross-border behavior and the work culture across the full breadth of the system. This is still in progress and the NOS states that it will inform Van Rijn about the findings at the sports editors.
Also RTL News, part of the commercial TV company RTL Nederland, decided on Wednesday to investigate after “concrete signals” about an unsafe working atmosphere. “We are pleased that these colleagues feel safe enough to give these signals and the editors-in-chief take them seriously,” a spokesperson said to the newspaper. General Journal.