Raisa Blommestijn will immediately stop working as a presenter at broadcaster Ongehoord Nederland (ON!). She has that on Monday announced on X. Her departure follows an ultimatum presented to her by ON! founder Arnold Karskens. In order to remain employed at the broadcaster, she said she had to give up her X account. Blommestijn, who has more than 100,000 followers on the platform, did not respond to this.
It is not known what the exact reason for the ultimatum was. In her response to “I absolutely cannot agree with this. If I agreed, I would be selling my soul.”
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Unheard of in the Netherlands leave a comment on Monday know that the broadcaster has repeatedly asked Blommestijn to “handle with care” her online statements. “Opinions may differ about correct journalistic conduct. That is different from censorship.”
Blommestijn has presented the television program Ongehoord Nieuws since 2022. In its first year, the public broadcaster was flooded with complaints because of her performance in one of the broadcasts. In it, she used racist language to explain four videos taken haphazardly from the internet, showing “black-against-white” violence. Blommestijn used the n-word. The NPO then asked to withdraw the provisional recognition of Ongehoord Nederland. Although Ongehoord Nederland still broadcasts, the broadcaster was imposed several fines for not acting “in accordance with public values”.