updateBNNVara no longer wants to broadcast a documentary series about cancel culture, among other things, because the broadcaster itself appears to be part of the series in terms of content. Omroep Max is doing that now, the series can already be seen next Thursday at NPO Start.
Leon van Wijk and Alexander van Eenennaam
Latest update:
04-06-23, 18:19
The do-it-yourself dictatorship by presenter Fidan Ekiz and director Kees Schaap is about ‘the world of wokeness, exclusion and fear’. The four parts were initially made for BNNVara, but that broadcaster withdrew. The makers approached Max boss Jan Slagter, who took the bait after consultation with BNNVara.
The podcast The Communicados reported on Sunday morning that Suzanne Kunzeler, director of content at BNNVara, had refused the documentary. The series is said to also address the alleged culture of fear within its broadcaster. Although she is not journalistically responsible and is not about it, she would have asked the makers to delete a passage about it. When the director refused, the broadcaster withdrew.
‘Choco kisses with blackface’
BNNVara states that the broadcaster has been incorporated in an ‘improper way’ in the documentary, a co-production of the broadcaster and Schaap’s company Episode One. During the making process, the director is said to have sent a ‘funny Christmas gift’ to the person ultimately responsible at BNNVara. ‘This Christmas package included a box of chocolate kisses with a cut-out on it blackface pasted,” said a spokesperson.
‘The recipient thought that was an unsavory joke and he told the director in a conversation. The maker then made this joke and his interpretation of the reaction part of the series. However, the way in which he had incorporated this into the series was one-sided and we did not think it was right to classify this conversation as cancelling. We didn’t want to broadcast it under our own flag like this.’ The course of events made it “complicated to assess this program and to finish it in co-production,” says the broadcaster.
Schaap points out that BNNVara itself gave away a box of chocolate kisses as a prize in the end-of-year quiz You can’t do anything at all anymore late last year. The recipient knew very well ‘how anti-racist’ he is, says Schaap. The person would not have first let him know that he found it tasteless, but would have spoken to the management. “That’s exactly what our series is about, that’s why it’s in it,” he says. “If you don’t like a joke, you logically call the prankster, rather than take the joke out of context and use it to damage someone’s reputation.”
‘Radical choices’
Max boss Slagter was happy to bring in the documentary. ,,It is now clear that I am not a fan of the current woke and cancel culture”, he says. “I have regularly spoken out against that, as far as I am concerned we are going too far. A story always has multiple sides and it’s important to highlight them.”
In the series, Ekiz and Schaap look for the relationship between the cancel culture and the increased polarization. For example, they ask why people with dissenting opinions are sometimes publicly condemned and what this means for them. They speak, among others, Gijs van Dijk, the former PvdA member of parliament who was accused of transgressive behaviour, and Ongehoord Nederland chairman Arnold Karskens.
‘Ekiz and Schaap gradually become part of the story without realizing it in advance,’ reports Omroep Max. That led to ‘radical choices’ and a ‘very unexpected denouement’. The series, which has been in the works for two years, can also be seen on TV later. When is still unclear.
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