DAR AL HARB - NETHERLANDS: JOURNALISTS & FILM MAKERS AFRAID TO REPORT ON THE ISLAMIZATION OF EUROPE & THE NETHERLANDS

Netherlands Drops on Press Freedom Chart

THE HAGUE, 03/05/07 - The 2004 murder of Theo van Gogh has created a climate of fear among Dutch journalists and filmmakers wanting to report on immigration and the increasing influence of Islam. So concludes the Freedom House organisation, which has placed the Netherlands lower down on its annual ranking order of countries with a free press.

The Netherlands has dropped to 13th place, down from 6th place in 2006 and 2005. The country collected 13 penalty points, down from 11 in 2006 and in 2005. On its legal media environment, the Netherlands scored 2 penalty points and on its economic media environment, 4. More than half of the penalty points were awarded in the Political Environment category (7). This is partly due to the media climate following the Van Gogh murder.

In 2004, radical Islamist Mohammed Bouyeri killed controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorist murder in 2005. However "the legacy left by van Gogh's murder is a climate of fear among journalists and filmmakers interested in pursuing controversial topics, particularly those related to immigration and the increasing influence of Islam in the Netherlands," Freedom House notes.

The organisation names as other flaws that restrictions against insulting the monarch and royal family exist - although "they are rarely enforced", and that the Netherlands does not have legislation ensuring the right of journalists to protect their sources - "although this right can be invoked under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights".

In November, two journalists of the Netherlands' largest newspaper, De Telegraaf, were imprisoned for refusing to reveal their sources in the case of an intelligence service agent who was suspected of leaking classified information to the underworld. Although they were released after a few days and the court order to reveal their sources was dropped, "this is a worrying sign for journalists in the Netherlands, many of whom now fear that potential sources will be deterred from confiding in them as a result of this case".

De Telegraaf was also at the centre of a separate debate over the legality of wire tapping when it was exposed that the Dutch intelligence service had been taping the phone conversations of two of De Telegraaf's leading reporters. "In defense of the wire tapping, Home Minister Johan Remkes told the Dutch parliament that journalists should not be given special protections and, like the rest of the population, ought to be subject to investigation and telephone tapping if necessary."

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Pertinent Links:

1) Netherlands Drops on Press Freedom Chart