Far-right broadcaster ON switched off over licensing breaches

Culture minister Rianne Letschert has confirmed that she intends to take far-right broadcaster Ongehoord Nederland off the airwaves after the media regulator asked her to withdraw its licence.

Letschert said the decision was the “most serious means at my disposal” and followed a series of breaches of broadcasting rules since ON started showing programmes on the Dutch public networks in 2022.

“There are clear rules for broadcasters that want to make programmes with public money,” the minister said. ”And if you repeatedly fail to abide by them, there comes a point where it has to stop.”

The breaking point was a panel discussion posted on ON’s YouTube channel in July that featured a clip from a speech by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in which he fulminated against the ”rootless international clique”, referring to the Jews.

Panellists, including editor-in-chief Joost Niemöller, agreed with a proposition that the “cosmopolitan elite” was “essentially hostile” to ordinary people, though they also rejected Hitler’s anti-Semitism.

Vlemmix called the decision a “very worrying day for Dutch public broadcasting” and said he would fight for “the interests of everyone who welcomes our views, but also public broadcasting and the views of the right in general.”

Regulator call

Letschert had previously rejected demands to take ON off the air, arguing that as a government minister she could not interfere in its editorial line.

Her legal position changed when the media regulator CvdM wrote to her last week telling her that ON was not fulfilling its obligations under Dutch broadcasting law.

The NPO, which is responsible for the three Dutch public TV channels, also asked the minister to intervene because ON was not prepared to work as a partner organisation.

The broadcasting ombudsman has reprimanded the channel several times for disseminating untrue information and mixing fact with opinion.

ON has also been fined twice in the last year by the media regulator, once for breaching conflict of interest rules and once for breaching its own editorial code.

Letschert said those three reasons were enough for her to pull ON’s licence, though the broadcaster will not be taken off the air immediately because it has the right to appeal against her decision.

Rules of freedom

“The Netherlands is a democratic state that observes the rule of law. That obliges us to take great care with the decisions we make,” she said. “Ongehoord Nederland will therefore have the opportunity to respond to my proposal and I will consider that response carefully before I make a final decision.

“A free public broadcasting system should have space for difference, debate and for views that clash and sometimes cause offence. But that freedom is only strong if everyone observes the rules that protect it.”