NPO director Frans Klein temporarily resigns from his position pending the results of the investigation that the NPO is conducting into working conditions at the BNNVARA program De Wereld Draait Door (DWDD). The NPO announced this in a statement on Tuesday.
Frans Klein was closely involved with DWDD as media director
On Monday afternoon, the NPO announced an independent investigation into the work culture at DWDD . It will be investigated what signals about abuses there have been and what happened to those signals. At the time, as media director of BnnVara, Klein was closely involved in the recording of DWDD and later got a position as video director at the NPO. “To prevent any discussion about the independence of the investigation, Frans Klein has indicated that he will temporarily resign his position pending the results of the investigation,” said the NPO.
In a study published Friday by de Volkskrant dozens of former employees did DWDD their story. They speak of “extreme outbursts of anger and public humiliations” by Matthijs van Nieuwkerk.
‘I’m not proud of it, I don’t like it’
Klein said in the newspaper that he was not aware of transgressive behavior behind the scenes. He acknowledged that some of Van Nieuwkerk’s statements went “too far”, but said it was also “the work culture”. “Maybe we thought that violent behavior was normal in many places in the media world. I’m not proud of it, I don’t think it’s pretty – but that work culture was so hard in many places in Hilversum.”
The NPO boss says he has addressed Van Nieuwkerk several times about his behavior. “If things didn’t go well. Or if the signal was: the editors are really having a hard time. Then I said: Matthijs, you also have to take care of your editorial staff. But if you ask if I had the idea that I could really change Matthijs? Then the answer is: no.”
Van Nieuwkerk resigned his work at BNNVARA on Monday. “The fact that my employer openly doubts my sincerity makes further cooperation impossible,” said the 62-year-old television maker. He “severs ties” with the broadcaster.
‘A deeply felt regret’
BnnVara director Suzanne Kunzeler made “a deeply felt regret” in the Nieuwsuur program on behalf of the broadcaster on Monday evening. “To all those people, all those former colleagues, including colleagues who still work at BnnVara, who have sometimes suffered from this for years”, “worked in fear” and “had to experience that suffering”.
Hilversum now seems to be divided into two camps. There are well-known Dutch people who understand Matthijs and celebrities who criticize him.