Council for Journalism agrees with NRC after complaints Jan Six

The Council for Journalism (RvdJ) has NRC this Thursday in a case that art dealer Jan Six submitted to the Council. At the request of injured parties, the complaints body investigates whether journalists have acted with due care in journalism. Six argued before the Board that this was not the case with two articles.

The issue concerned, among other things, whether NRC on April 16 this year, a prominent art collector called the art dealer Jan Six “pure evil” and accused him of fraud. Six also wanted a ruling on whether the front-page announcement the next day, “Riot Number Two,” wouldn’t be too sensational and tendentious. In addition, the question was whether the newspaper announced on August 27 that Six was not the buyer of his own Rembrandt discovery Portrait of a young man would be “a surprising development”, while according to Six it could be assumed to be known since 2018.

The Council concluded that NRC acted with due care in journalism.

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Six believed that NRC insufficient research and made use of unreliable sources. The rebuttal would have been insufficient and, moreover, the newspaper would not have handled previous complaints about this carefully. There would also be a conflict of interest. The offending newspaper article from April was a pre-publication from Between art and cash, the book by both authors, and is said to promote the sale of this book. But if there were any other interest, the Council argues, then that interest would not conflict with the journalistic interest of the subject.

Author Pieter van Os says he is “relieved, but not surprised” about the Council’s verdict. “I understand that our publication has unpleasant consequences for Mr Six. But the Council is not concerned with whether he is pathetic, but whether we have done our journalistic work.”

Lawyer Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm announced this Thursday evening from abroad that he had not yet discussed the ruling with his client. He was therefore unable to indicate whether Six makes use of the option to request a revision.