The NPO wants to impose a sanction on Ongehoord Nederland, consisting of a deduction from the budget of at most 15 percent for non-compliance with the journalism code of the NPO. As a candidate, the broadcaster has an annual budget of 3.6 million euros. According to a spokesperson, the amount of the sanction has not yet been pre-sorted. The NPO board announced this this afternoon, in response to the judgment of NPO ombudsman Margo Smit last week.
Ongehoord Nederland was informed in writing on Wednesday of the intention of the NPO board, on which broadcasting director Arnold Karskens may give his view in the coming week. The NPO then wants to make a final judgment on the measure to be taken on 27 June.
The Ombudsman’s ruling published last week ‘shows a pattern that the programme’ Unheard of News has systematically violated the journalistic code of the NPO in various broadcasts,” writes the NPO board. “Under the Media Act, the Board of Directors of the NPO can withhold a maximum of 15 percent of the budget set for a broadcaster as a sanction.” To do this, a broadcaster must have violated a binding agreement with the NPO. Ongehoord Nederland has committed itself to the journalistic code of the NPO upon joining.
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Ombudsman Smit concluded in a 49-page report last week that the NPO 1 program Unheard of News acts as a conduit. According to her, the presenters are violating the journalistic code by not asking questions about the positions of radical right-wing politicians in particular. The NPO board said that the ombudsman’s conclusions “are really concerned”. It is the first time that a decision by the Ombudsman has resulted in such a measure.
Ongehoord Nederland came into the public eye as an aspiring broadcaster this year, and has an opinion program around lunchtime twice a week and a podcast. The then outgoing minister Arie Slob (Media, ChristenUnie) admitted the broadcaster after Ongehoord Nederland had committed 50,000 members and received positive advice from the Council of Culture, the NPO and the Media Authority. The latter body lacked the instruments to reject the broadcaster, as was apparent from internal communication, obtained with an appeal to the Public Access Act (WOB) by NRC.
Several Ongehoord Nieuws broadcasts attracted attention for their controversial content, such as an item where women wearing headscarves were asked whether they had paid for their bicycles. Last month, the episode with the Flemish radical right-wing politician Filip Dewinter, who spoke about repopulation and the hostile takeover by Islam through migration, led to a fuss and even parliamentary questions to State Secretary Gunay Uslu (Culture and Media, D66). The program almost always features politicians from FVD, PVV and BVNL (Wybren van Haga).
Ongehoord Nederland said in a response that it sees the proposed sanction as a “frontal attack on freedom of the press.” According to the aspiring broadcaster, it smells like “unadulterated censorship”.
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