Reporters were threatened, intimidated, abused, and physically assaulted.

 

Despite a strong political commitment to media freedom at the highest level, the Netherlands face a number of challenges with regard to the safety of journalists. 2021 was marked by the shooting of in‐ vestigative journalist Peter R de Vries on 6 July in the street in Amsterdam. His death, nine days after being shot, has shaken the country. While the case is still under investigation in order to find out the exact circumstances and motives behind the attack, and the alleged relation to his advisory role in the Marengo trial, the issue of the safety of journalists in the Netherlands was widely discussed again.

 A few days later, the RTL office, which de Vries had last visited on the day of the shooting, was forced to cancel its programmes after“serious threats” on its editorial office. In August, Groningen blog Sikkom editor-inchief Willem Groeneveld’s house was targeted by molotov cocktails. He managed to extinguish the fire in the house in time. Physical assaults (12), including four resulting in injury, were documented, notably as part of the protests and riots which were triggered in reaction to new COVID-19 measures. 

In particular, the weekend of 24-25 January 2021 and the following days were marked by violent clashes in a number of Dutch cities after the government announced the introduction of a curfew, the first since the end of World War II. Reporters were threatened, intimidated, abused, and physically assaulted. Two journalists, in Tilburg and Haarlem, were pelted with stones by groups of individuals. Despite the new preventive measures taken by NOS, which include the protection of reporters by security guards accompanying TV crews, the reality on the ground is not very encouraging, with guards also being targeted. In Urk, a corrosive substance – probably pepper spray – was sprayed on a security guard’s face who required medical treatment on the scene. Another assault endangering the lives of a photographer and his girlfriend illustrated the deplorable and violent conditions in which journalists can find them‐ selves doing their job. They were shooting photos of a car fire when several people started hitting the photographer’s car in which they were seated, before one of them rammed the car with a tractor and flipped it over onto its roof in the ditch. The lack of respect for journalists and media workers from citizens is a worrying phenomenon in the Netherlands, with 14 out of the 20 media violations perpetrated by private individuals. Data shows that they follow a narrative whereby the news media are biased, “lying”, and spreading “fake news”. 

October 2021 was also marked by three cases of arbitrary detentions of journalists who were covering climate group Extinction Rebellion’s actions in The Hague. Despite their journalists’ press cards, they were taken to the police station and could not continue their work. They were freed shortly after proving their journalistic work.. The sharp increase in the number of attacks against journalists and media workers in the Netherlands has prompted the MFRR and its partners to plan a fact-find‐ ing mission in 2022.