Geert Wilders is found not guilty, but the verdict is given different nuances by the various papers. There’s a paedophile blacklist, a minister is given a hard time over cuts and strong marijuana may become a thing of the past. It’s all in the Dutch dailies.
Reviewed Dutch dailies
AD
Algemeen Dagblad, popular
De Telegraaf
centre-right, mass circulation
de Volkskrant
centre-left
NRC Handelsblad
Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant Algemeen Handelsblad, authoritative
nrc.next
NRC's sister paper in tabloid format
Trouw
Protestant
Freesheets:
Only one of today’s papers fails to lead with the news that anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders has been acquitted on all counts. He was on trial for incitement to hatred and discrimination and for group defamation of Muslims following his provocative statements about Islam.
AD describes the verdict as a glorious victory for the PVV leader. “Everyone should be able to say what they want” is its headline. Mr Wilders graces the paper with an interview and tells us that not just he, but all Dutch people have a right to say what they like.
However, nrc.next disagrees, saying that the court ruled Mr Wilders was operating only just within the law. It was only because he was a politician talking about issues affecting society that he could get away with making his inflammatory anti-Islam statements. Ordinary people, operating outside the context of political debate, would presumably not be given this special leeway by the courts.
Wilders “has not been gagged”
Trouw also stresses that the verdict only refers to political debate. “Judge gives politicians a lot of room” reads its headline. It says politicians have always been able to say what they wanted within the parliamentary chamber. Now, the space allowed freedom of expression has been extended, and they can go very far indeed outside parliament as well.
De Telegraaf runs a huge front-page picture of Mr Wilders celebrating with his lawyer Bram Moszkowicz in an Amsterdam restaurant. It says both friends and foes on the Dutch political scene were delighted with the verdict, which put freedom of expression first. Mr Wilders praised his lawyer for “fighting like a panther for me”. He said he had lost ten kilos with the stress of the case, but that he “had not been gagged”.
Paedophiles blacklist
The only paper bucking the trend is de Volkskrant. It leads with the news that a blacklist is being launched designed to stop paedophiles from switching from one children’s organisation to another after they have breached codes of conduct as volunteers.
The scheme has been five years in the making but now the Data Protection Authority has given it the go-ahead. For privacy reasons, the list can only be used by one designated member of a youth club or organisation. Even then, the names on it cannot simply be read. The details of a possible volunteer have to be entered and it can be seen whether or not the person is on the list.
With national sporting, scouting and camping groups expected to join the scheme this year, de Volkskrant says the lion’s share of the two million volunteers working with children will be covered by the new blacklist.
A spokesperson for the Netherlands Volunteers’ Organisation (NOV) says “parents and people offering subsidies should raise questions if an association has not joined the scheme”.
Minister faces tears and recrimination
The photograph on the front page of Trouw shows a woman in a wheelchair: she is in floods of tears as a journalist’s microphone is pushed towards her. She was one of the protesters who turned out yesterday to make an impassioned plea to Deputy Welfare Minister Marlies Veldhuijzen van Zanten not to impose swingeing cuts to the personal budgets for care (pgb) scheme.
The minister explained that the pgb scheme was like a hot-air balloon with three times too many people on board. She promised that, after the pgb cuts, people would still get the same care provided by the same personnel at the same times. The crowd did not believe her.
A man in tears, pushing his wheelchair-bound wife, begged the minister not to go ahead with the cuts, designed to save 900 million euros. A mother screamed that her family would fall apart if her pgb was withdrawn.
Trouw says the embattled minister invited everyone to come and have a talk with her, but doubts whether that will help. It says 130,000 people at present receive pgb and that the government wants to reduce this to 13,000 in 2014.
Strong marijuana - a thing of the past?
This morning’s nrc.next picks up on an official report advising the government to include cannabis with a high percentage of the active ingredient THC on the list of banned drugs. For years, illegal Dutch growers have bred cannabis plants containing increasing amounts of THC.
The report points to the health risks of cannabis with levels of more than 15 percent THC, and says this grade of marijuana should be reclassified and included with drugs such as heroin and cocaine. If the recommendations become law, more than half the cannabis at present on sale in the Netherlands would be illegal.
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