Right-wing broadcast crossed the line with story claiming "less exposed aspect of racism": NPO

Ongehoord Nederland “crossed the line of editorial freedom” with a racism item it showed in Thursday’s broadcast, Dutch Foundation for Public Broadcasting (NPO) chairman Frederike Leeflang said on Friday.

The broadcaster showed a compilation of online videos in which people of color beat up white people. According to presenter Raisa Blommestijn, the program wanted to demonstrate “a less exposed aspect of racism" present on social media.

She described the compilation using language often considered to be racist in intent. In her words, she stated, “blanken die door negers in elkaar worden geslagen,” which loosely translates to “whites who were beaten up by blacks.” However, the outmoded word “blanken” denotes people who themselves are without color, while “neger” is a frowned upon term for Black people closer to the English word “negro.”

According to Leeflang, “NPO attaches great importance to editorial freedom, but there are limits to that when it comes to racist or discriminatory statements. According to the NPO, that line has been crossed in this broadcast.” The NPO asked the Media Authority for its opinion on this. The NPO pointed out that the Media Act states that “a public media institution must take appropriate measures to prevent the offer of its media services from inciting violence or hatred towards a group or member of a group.”

The NPO received “many” complaints about the item on Friday. Leeflang has asked the NPO’s Ombudsman to treat these complaints “with priority.”

The NPO fined Ongehoord Nederland in July after the Ombudsman concluded that the broadcaster does not always adhere to the NPO’s Journalistic Code. This concerns an amount of over 93,000 euros on the annual budget set for Ongehoord Nederland. The broadcaster objected to the measure.

The NPO Ombudsman launched an investigation earlier this year after receiving a “remarkably high number of complaints” about the nature and content of the broadcasts Ongehoord Nederland has been providing since mid-February. According to the Ombudsman, the complainants found that the program spreads incorrect and unreliable information, that the journalists did not ask critical questions, and that the guests were mainly from the right of the political spectrum. That violates the NPO’s Journalistic Code. The Ombudsman ruled that the complaints were largely well-founded.

The then Media Minister Arie Slob granted Arnold Karskens’ broadcaster aspiring status in 2021 on the condition that the broadcaster shared “the same ideas about independent journalism” as other broadcasters within the NPO. However, the Ministry has never monitored the broadcaster to see whether Ongehoord Nederland adhered to the rules because it does not consider this its task.

Karskens could not be reached for comment.