Culture minister Marja van Bijsterveldt will look ‘very critically’ at the rumoured €1m pay-off for the head of the Dutch world service broadcaster RNW who is leaving as part of a major cost-cutting exercise.

The RNW’s annual budget of €46m is being slashed to €14m and 270 of the 350 staff are losing their jobs.
The NRC reported on Friday morning Jan Hoek is to get a redundancy package which could be worth more than €1m. The paper bases its claims on sources within the broadcast group.
The new-look RNW will fall under the foreign ministry from next year and focus entirely on promoting freedom of speech and providing news and information to countries without a free press.