Several politicians strongly condemn an action by Forum for Democracy MP Gideon van Meijeren against political reporter Merel Ek van Hart of the Netherlands. In a video published on Sunday entitled Sewer rats unmasked, Van Meijeren seeks confrontation with the journalist with a running camera. Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD) and GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver, among others, speak on Twitter of ‘a new low’, Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing, CDA) calls it ‘deliberately intimidating and undermining. Pure poison, this.”
In the film, Van Meijeren visits the journalist’s office in the Chamber building. He wants to talk about a question that Ek asked last week about the interpretation of the word ‘liquidate’ by FVD. When Ek sees the camera, she says she doesn’t want to start a conversation that way. Van Meijeren and his employee pretend to turn off the camera and a short conversation follows, while the sound is still being recorded.
I give in a reaction on Twitter to have given an explanation of the term ‘liquidate’ in her question, which turned out to be incorrect. She emphasizes that the point she wanted to make remains: “words can be interpreted in several ways”. She states about the FVD video that everyone can criticize her work and she is willing to discuss it, but “the way Van Meijeren did that is not okay”.
Prime Minister Rutte writes in his response that journalists in a democracy “should be able to do their work without being discredited”. Thomas Bruning of the Dutch Association of Journalists (NVJ) calls Van Meijeren’s action “deeply sad” at the ANP news agency. According to him, the impact is even greater due to the personal approach of the MP. “The action is alarming and resentful in every way. Especially because he is a Member of Parliament and announces that this is the start of a series. He actually threatens: ‘journalists beware’.”