Green party wants government to boycott site accused of sexism

GroenLinks wants all government agencies, such as the Tax Authorities, to stop advertising on website GeenStijl now that the blog is accused of sexism. GroenLinks parliamentarian Corinne Ellemeet calls for "rapid change" and wants to know how Finance State Secretary Eric Wiebes will "ensure that the Tax Authorities no longer financially supports sexism in the media", AD reports.

Last week over 100 women, including numerous journalists, signed a call to boycott GeenStijl. This followed GeenStijl's reaction to a Volkskrant journalist accusing the site of sexism. In response GeenStijl posted a photo of the journalist and called on readers to post "sexist compliments" in the comments "because that's how we do it in this universe". The photo received many explicit comments. In a column the Volkskrant called it "online rape".

On Sunday both Ministers Jet Bussemaker and Melanie Schultz van Haegen said that they support the call for advertisers to "critically reflect" on whether they still want to advertise on the site. On television program Buitenhof, Bussemaker (Education) called it a "good action" and said that she thinks "a line has really been crossed". On WNL Schultz called it good that advertisers are alerted to the sexism claims.

The call for a boycott resulted in a lively debate about whether this affects freedom of the press. Columnist and old GeenStijl editor Annabel Nanninga thinks that sexism is being used as an excuse to destroy the site.