Lennart van der Meulen, general director of the VPRO, will immediately resign his duties due to his health. He announced this on Tuesday. He wants to focus on the further course of his illness, he writes in a personal message on the website of the VPRO, although he does not feel “ill at the moment”. “It is still too crazy for words for me that this is how it goes.”
His duties as director are provisionally performed by VPRO business manager Roel Brugman. Van der Meulen had been director of the broadcaster since 2009, after having been network coordinator at NPO2 and NPO3 (at the time still Netherlands 2 and Netherlands 3).
During his period at the VPRO, he turned against the NPO several times, in a struggle to maintain the idiosyncratic character of the broadcaster. “It starts with curiosity, individuality, creativity and creative drive,” he said in his last New Year’s speech – the “foundation of the program package. That is also what the battle with the NPO is about.”