The Dutch Public Broadcasting Foundation NOS has removed the logos from the satellite cars that journalists use on location. The reason is persistent threats. “A defeat for journalism.”
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‘This week we took a step that we thought we should never take: we have had the NOS logos removed from the cars we travel with every day to provide reporters with a workplace and to improve radio and television connections with Hilversum. ‘ That writes editor-in-chief Marcel Gelauff in a message on the website of the NOS.
The reason is the daily collisions and threats along the way: raised middle fingers, verbal abuse or worse, trash thrown at reporters, and cars cut off or blocked. ‘Assembling and establishing radio and television connections with Hilversum is occasionally made impossible by banging or peeing on the car.’
The NOS warns against the situation that led to the measure: “We have sunk that deeply and the amazing thing is: it all changed quickly in a short time,” says editor-in-chief Gelauff. ‘Journalism is under attack from people and groups who only want to see their own world again, try to make every other perspective impossible and thus affect the freedom of the press.’
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