FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2024

In January 2024 the Van Rijn report was published by the Dutch government. “Nothing seen, nothing heard, nothing done”, is the title of this investigative report into the Dutch public broadcasters, the culture and social safety within the organisations. In the years leading up to this report there has been a lot of upheaval about the public and commercial broadcasting organizations in the Netherlands.

Powerplay, intimidation, discrimination, sexual harassment, verbal violence and insecurity about employment were and are common in this industry. The setting of producing creative content with strict deadlines in a complex power system enabled and still enables this. Victims have been speaking up for a while and the report has opened this Pandora’s box. And not only in the Netherlands- in many more countries in Europe there has been much ado about #metoo, misuse of power and socially unsafe situations.

After publication of the Van Rijn report, this will presumably go on for a few more years. Directors and managers of public broadcasting organizations have had to leave. So much so that right now, there are a lot of vacancies and questions about who will take the responsibility of changing the system.