Pietro Hilz
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News from the NOS•today, 13:35•Modified today, 16:23
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The board of the NGO asks the Media Authority to rule on a broadcast by Ongehoord Nederland, in which discriminatory statements were made yesterday. According to the president of the NPO Frederieke Leeflang, the broadcaster considers editorial freedom to be of fundamental importance, but there are “limits to this with regard to racist or discriminatory statements”.
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Conscious statements were made in the program Unheard of news. In an article on racism, random images of blacks beating whites were shown, after which presenter Raisa Blommestijn says, “You see whites get beaten by blacks. Shared on the Internet.”
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Blommestijn then asks the question to FvD MP Pepijn van Houwelingen “Why do we hear so little about it when it comes to the broader discussion, when it comes to racism?”
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This is the excerpt from the Ongehoord Nieuws show:
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Fragment of the Ungehoord Nieuws TV show on racism
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NPO President Leeflang points out in a statement the Media Act, which states that appropriate measures can be taken if a broadcaster “incites violence or hatred towards a group or member of a group”. According to her, the NGO has received many complaints about the deliberate transmission of Ongehoord Nederland. The NGO asks the Ombudsman to deal with these complaints as a matter of priority.
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Arjan Lock, chairman of the Board of Broadcasters, also believes that Ongehoord Nederland has “clearly” crossed borders. “It is impossible for this to be broadcast under the flag of the NGO.”
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Lock is satisfied with the “very strong response” of the NPO and expects the topic to be discussed also within the Board of Broadcasters. This advisory body is made up of representatives from all eight public broadcasters. Among them is Arnold Karskens, the president of Ongehoord Nederland.
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The NOS turned to Karskens for comment, but they could not be reached. Blommestijn was also not immediately available for comment. He calls it on Twitter “weird what a single word triggers in people, but it also illustrates why we should use it.” He adds: “Don’t bow to intolerance”.
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Opinion and interpretation program
In July, the broadcaster was fined by the NGO for violating the public broadcaster’s journalism code. It was about 93,000 euros: 2.5 percent of the annual budget. The NGO’s ombudsman, Margo Smit, concluded in early June that the ON does not know how to separate facts and opinions in its programs.
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At the beginning of the second season of Unheard of news Host Arlette Adriani announced that the program had changed genre and was no longer a news section, but “an opinion and interpretation program”. Presenter Ahmed Aarad was also replaced by Raisa Blommestijn, a regular guest on the show in the first season.
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