Dutch television news programme Nova broadcast throughout the Netherlands on Wednesday 11 June caused uproar at the Hilversum headquarters of Radio Netherlands.
A statement issued by Radio Netherlands said that the station’s management reacted angrily to the item in the Dutch current affairs TV programme Nova. The item was based on a leaked copy of the McKinsey report into the efficiency of public broadcasting that was jointly commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Culture and the broadcasters themselves. Nova seized on one section of the report, suggesting drastic budget cuts of up to 83% for Radio Netherlands. Under this scenario, everything except the station’s broadcasts to the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam would be scrapped. The programme interviewed a representative of the Dutch Association of Journalists, who said this would effectively mean the end of Radio Netherlands.
In a press statement, Radio Netherlands management pointed out that the purpose of the report was to identify different scenarios where cost savings could be made, of which the example quoted by Nova was just one. They point out that Radio Netherlands, on its own intiative, has already embarked on a major reorganisation based on budget cuts already planned for the next few years. Decisions on the mission of Radio Netherlands are made by politicians in The Hague, not by other public broadcasters or McKinsey.
RN management also said that a motion was to have been put to the lower house of the Dutch parliament last year, specifically ruling out further cuts to Radio Netherlands within the overall budget for public broadcasting. The fall of the government prevented that motion from being discussed or voted upon, but Radio Netherlands has been told that a similar motion could still be on the cards. In a personal message to staff, Radio Netherlands Director General Lodewijk Bouwens said that he is no more pessimistic about the future of Radio Netherlands than he was before the Nova broadcast.
Radio Netherlands’ Financial Director Jan Hoek and Editor-in-chief Freek Eland addressed a meeting of staff about the Nova broadcast this afternoon. In answer to a question about why the programme did not contain any official reaction from Radio Netherlands, it was explained that Nova had contacted a number of individuals at Radio Netherlands prior to the programme, but had given the impression that it would be a general item dealing with cuts across the whole of public broadcasting. Given that the McKinsey report has not been officially published, the consensus was that Radio Netherlands should wait until it is in the public domain before commenting. The fact the the item actually broadcast was only about Radio Netherlands came as a surprise.