Dutch journalists are confronted with harassment, “shit storms”, and insults, especially online. In most cases, these matters tend to abate by themselves, but on occasion, the media company’s legal department has had to be called upon, entailing a report being issued to the police. The general level of support provided was considered fair and sufficient by the journalists interviewed.
The website persveilig.nl was launched in November 2019 as a contact point where journalists could report threats of all kinds related to their profession. Persveilig.nl is a collaboration between the Dutch Association of Journalists (NVJ), the Association of Editors-in-Chief, the police, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Strikingly, only a few of the journalists we interviewed had heard of this initiative.
At present, security agents protect NOS crews that film demonstrations on the ground. It has been commonly believed over the last few years that organised crime groups threaten crime reporters. An attack against the building of De Telegraaf in 2018 was directly linked with the newspaper’s coverage of organised crime. However, the reporter in question and his family have since been under the constant protection of security agents.
