Far-right broadcaster gets third fine in a year; NPO asks for license to be revoked

The NPO has imposed a third financial sanction on broadcaster Ongheoord Nederland. It concerns a fine of almost 132,000 euros, the NPO said. The NPO also asked State Secretary Gunay Uslu (Media) to withdraw the provisional recognition of Arnold Karskens’ broadcaster.

The reason for the third fine is the second report by the NPO Ombudsman, published at the end of November, stating that Ongehoord Nederland “systematically violated” the journalistic code of the NPO in the second season of the program Ongehoord Nieuws. According to the NPO, Ongehoord Nederland is still “insufficiently prepared for the cooperation necessary for the NPO for the implementation of the legally established public media task.” Ongehoord Nederland’s improvement plan has also not yielded the desired results.

The NPO asked Uslu to act because it was hindered in its task. “The NPO can only fulfill its task if the broadcasters are willing to cooperate,” the NPO said in its request to the State Secretary.

NPO’s decision was “unjustified and biased,” Ongehoord Nederland said. “Critically highlighting the other side, opposite the mainstream, makes [Ongehoord Nederland] indispensable for public broadcasting, where all diverse voices must be heard,” the broadcaster said in a response.

The NPO applies its measures “with double standards,” the broadcaster alleged, and the third sanction is “extra harsh because many complaints are also received about other fellow broadcasters, and the NPO has tolerated serious transgressive behavior from them for years without handing out a fine of even a penny. … We will challenge the NPO sanctions to the highest courts in the name of freedom of expression.”

At the end of January, the NPO announced its intention to issue a third penalty to Ongehoord Nederland, and gave Arnold Karskens’ broadcaster two weeks to respond. It is the third sanction in a year for the media outlet. The first two sanctions, of more than 84,000 and more than 56,000 euros, were imposed in July and December, respectively. The latter is not official yet because Ongehoord Nederland has appealed against it.

The first sanction followed a report from the Ombudsman, who at the time ruled in favor of the complainants that Ongehoord Nederland had disseminated demonstrably incorrect information in its programs. The second fine followed because, according to the NPO, the broadcaster was not sufficiently prepared to cooperate within the broadcasting system.