Netherlands: Death threats sent to NU.nl must be punished
For six years, the media professionals working for the Dutch news portal NU.nl have been facing continuous harassment, including aggressive messages and death threats. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliate, the Dutch Association of Journalists (NVJ) in standing in full solidarity with the threatened media workers and calling on the Dutch authorities to prosecute the perpetrators.
Since 2018, NU.nl has received regular criticism of its content via email. These were all sent by a man who became increasingly aggressive over time. His messages changed in tone to include swearing and, more recently, death threats. Recent chilling messages have included ‘I hope you get beheaded’ and ‘Time to kill traitor’. All are sent by email but also written in the comments and questions section of articles on the website. Although NU.nl systematically deletes the hate messages posted on the portal, the perpetrator continues to create fake accounts to harass the moderation team and journalists.
“Since 2018, the newsroom has received 410 messages of this kind, sent at a rate of 4 to 5 times a week. Amid the persistent harassment, NU.nl finally filed a report to the Dutch authorities,” declared Chef News of NU.nl and the head of the moderation team Kim Einder to the European Federation of Journalists. She added that the harasser seems to be mostly motivated by racism, as he attacks more often when the editors write about a crime committed by a non-white person.
NU.nl is regularly the target of threats by readers who criticize NU.nl reporting. The consequences of this tireless harassment are not to be disregarded: the situation is taking a heavy toll on the mental health of NU.nl journalists, who receive psychological support from the media company.
PersVeilig (Press Safe), the platform in the Netherlands that deals with threats and violence against journalists told the EFJ it considers targeting this kind of digital harassment issue as one of its main goals, as it is often used against (women and minority) journalists and hard to fight against since the senders are often anonymous and hard to trace or the message is not punishable.
NU.nl fears that such death threats will go unpunished. Dutch law requires the threat to be specific enough to be qualified as a death threat.
“We are very frequently in contact with nu.nl. They reported the incidents to us and we gave several safety training sessions, also with the psychologist who works for PersVeilig. Since the tone of the threats has changed, nu.nl filed a short while ago a complaint to the police. The police is fully aware of what’s happening and we trust they will take all necessary steps”, says project manager Peter ter Velde of PersVeilig, the platform that was founded by the EFJ’s Dutch affiliate’s NVJ, the Society of Chief Editors, the police and prosecutors office.
“The Dutch authorities need to be more vigilant about the harassment and death threats to journalists before they escalate beyond the screen. Such attacks on journalists who are targeted simply for doing their job should be prosecuted, also to deter other perpetrators from threatening with total impunity,” declared EFJ Secretary General Ricardo Gutiérrez.
This statement was produced by EFJ as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries.
