‘Was Matthijs van Nieuwkerk on drink or drugs?’

Victoria Koblenko suggests that Matthijs van Nieuwkerk was on narcotics such as drink or drugs during his time at De Wereld Draait Door. “That that influenced his behavior.”

© NPO, SBS 6

The misconduct of Matthijs van Nieuwkerk behind the scenes of De Wereld Draait Door continues to occupy the mind. Victoria Koblenko also has an opinion about it. “I think I’ve been there three times in the fifteen years that the program has been running. I didn’t walk down the door there,” she says in the talk show HLF8.

Victoria happy

Victoria thinks it’s good that Matthijs is now hanging on the pillory. “I think we now live in a time where integrity, whether it’s about transgressive behavior or abuse of power, has moved higher on the agenda. That’s why things like this come out from all kinds of professions and that’s good.”

She thinks it’s very late. “My problem with this is: if this was brought out by de Volkskrant when the program was still running, you could have proved more. Now in hindsight you can no longer prove anything and you only rely on the stories of people who were afraid at the time and now finally dare to talk, anonymously.”

‘To the means’

Ronald Molendijk does not quite understand that remark. “That’s literally the definition of evidence, isn’t it? If a lot of people just say: ‘We were there’…”

Then Victoria refers to the possible use of narcotics. “Yes, but the evidence is also overwhelming, only you also hear all about that there might have been certain means involved, which would have determined his behavior. And of course it says in all of our contracts if we work for a channel that that is not allowed and you would then…”

On the coke

You could punish him for that, Victoria wants to say. However, she is interrupted by Frits Barend. He comments: “I’ve never seen that in my contract. Did you think RTL said that Henk van Dorp and I were not allowed to use coke? I have never experienced that.”

Leonie ter Braak is shocked by Victoria’s suggestion. “But what do you mean, Victoria? Because you don’t know if it’s true and that’s an assumption you make.”

whitewash

Victoria: “No, what I do with this is: I try to defend the behavior, which of course has actually been ripped off. To find a cause that it is not inherent in the man, but that the pressure is so high that you can imagine that.”

Frits doesn’t understand why people talk so highly about the pressure of presenting a talk show. “That pressure is something to endure. Isn’t it unique to do that program?”

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