PowNed journalists start wearing bodycams against aggression
PowNed reporters are now wearing body cameras in the hope that it will prevent aggression and violence against them. The broadcaster’s journalists are regularly confronted by angry citizens, most recently at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Dutch universities. “We just can’t do our job anymore,” PowNed boss Dominique Weesie told AD.
“We already had a security guard next to the reporter, and now our people also wear a bodycam, a GoPro-like camera that films from the moment we arrive until we leave again,” Weesie said.
Violence against reporters is not limited to protests in support of Gaza - PowNed reporters were attacked on Ameland last year when they tried to report on a secretive tradition, for example - but incidents at these protests at the University of Amsterdam last week was the final straw, Weesie said. His reporters were threatened, pelted with cups of urine, roughed up, or even assaulted.
“I have a lady who no longer dares to go to the demonstrations since last week. She doesn’t sleep well because of it. I think that’s quite something. And another lady even looked for other work because of aggression. With the bodycam images, I want to show what the media is confronted with nowadays if we simply want to report,” he said. PowNed will broadcast the images to show the violence. “Privacy? If you attack my people, then you no longer have any right to privacy.”
According to Weesie, national media like RTL and NOS face similar problems. He does not know where the increased aggression comes from. “I think this has to do with the movement that you also see in America with Trump and the total distrust of journalism. People no longer feel represented by the media and are starting their own media channels and sharing information there—information that is no longer checked by people who have been trained for it,” he said.
