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NOS website
Photo: Sharaf Maksumov / Alamy / Sharaf Maksumov / mauritius images
The Dutch broadcaster NOS has decided to remove the logos from the official vehicles.
The reason given for this was a massive increase in attacks against employees and vehicles.
The reporters would be confronted with insults and raised middle fingers, said NOS, the vehicles were pelted with garbage and slowed down in traffic.
NOS - with its full name Nederlandse Omroep Stichting, or Dutch Broadcasting Foundation - is a public service organization that is responsible as a supplier for the news and sports coverage of the TV channels NPO1, NPO2 and NPO3.
The head of the NOS newsroom, Marcel Gelauff, said in a report on his own account that this decision was a defeat for the NOS, but also for journalism as a whole.
Editor-in-chief Gelauff spoke of a responsibility for the safety of the people who are out and about for NOS every day.
The first thought arose in the spring.
At the time, the technicians said they did not want to remove the logos - if only out of recognition and pride in the company.
The situation has rapidly deteriorated since then.
Solidarity also comes from Germany
The editor-in-chief of the private rival broadcaster RTL Nieuws called the decision understandable, but it was sad that it had to be made.
It is completely unacceptable that journalists cannot do their work undisturbed.
You show solidarity with your colleagues.
Solidarity is also coming from Germany: The federal chairman of the German Association of Journalists, Frank Überall, called the decision to anonymize the vehicles "frightening".
It is "bad that radio journalists now have to go into public hiding in order to still be able to do their job."
Dutch politicians expressed concern.
The leader of the Green Left, Jesse Klaver, called it "terrible" that journalists felt so threatened and warned of the consequences of the polarization of society.
According to NOS editor-in-chief Gelauff, more than 100 attacks on journalists have been reported on a specially set up website.
DJV boss everywhere: "Anyone who practices violence against journalists has the fundamental right of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in their sights. This is nowhere acceptable, neither in Germany nor in the Netherlands."
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