Fidan Ekiz is ridiculed by many colleagues in the profession for her statements about the end of Op1, but the presenter denies that she is a conspiracy theorist. “It really is.”
The right-wing evangelical talk show Op1 will disappear from the air next summer to make way for the left-progressive colleagues of Khalid & Sophie. A remarkable decision: both programs are not exactly popular, but the latter title, from BNNVARA, is really maligned. You can already assume that it will be a ratings disaster.
Fidan Duck
Fidan Ekiz, one of the presenters of Op1, is quite pissed about it. She said in the broadcast on Thursday that Geert Wilders’ enormous election victory plays a role in the decision-making. “We hear things like that Op1 would have made Wilders great, that the NPO should form a left-progressive bloc,” she said in the broadcast.
Colleagues in the profession are critical. “Crack it,” said former NOS boss Hans Laroes on X. And science journalist Adriaan ter Braack: “Fidan is really Katrien Duck in everything, even now with this half-conspiracy thinking. What do you mean you’re going to do without facts as a presenter? It’s really great that she is canceled again for the 17th time.”
‘From first hand’
Strange reactions, Fidan thinks. “I want to say something about it,” she says in her radio show In the cafetaria. “People are now turning it into a kind of victim story. Look, programs can disappear, that happens. It’s part of it and that’s fine. That’s not the point. I heard something that I thought was important and I mentioned it.”
She continues: “Last Thursday I was told firsthand that the NPO said that there is a need for a left-progressive bloc and that platforms within public broadcasting, including Op1, have made Wilders and the right great. I had already been told that before, and now I had it confirmed in the presence of colleagues.”
Not from the concierge
So it is not unbelievable gossip, according to Fidan. “I want to make this very clear here. I didn’t just hear it in the corridors from the concierge or something, so I just wanted to clarify that.”
She continues: “If the questions I asked there were not justified or correct, or if I had just made this up, as some people claim, then I would not be here today, Wieger, I think. What I would also like to add is: if we had been told that we as Op1 have made the left big, I would have asked the same questions.”
Objectionable
What does Fidan think about colleagues in the profession mocking her? She finds it ‘really objectionable’. Journalists’ initial response should be to investigate something, she says. “Instead of that happening, they attack my credibility and choose to talk about conspiracy thinking, underbelly and insinuation.”
They actually do that themselves now, according to Fidan. “I wouldn’t be worth anything as a journalist if I hadn’t asked these questions out loud, with the knowledge I had. And if it’s true, that’s a scandal. If I did not want to know what is wrong within the system where I work, then I am not worthy of this profession.”
Fragment
Fidan responds to the commotion that has arisen: