Saturday, December 06, 2003

A report in today's issue of the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad claims that
Radio Netherlands is involved in commercial activities that are not in
accordance with the mission of a public broadcaster. The newspaper cites as
examples two activities associated with the Radio Netherlands relay station
on the island of Bonaire, in the Netherlands Antilles. One is a power
company and the other, RNB Technology, provides technical services to other
broadcasters in the region. Some of the Radio Netherlands employees on
Bonaire work full time for these spin-off companies. The article in NRC
Handelsblad goes on to mention the activities of RN Music, and the
privatised company BFN, that provides all studio and technical services in
Hilversum.

Radio Netherlands management have this morning responded by saying that the
article in NRC Handelsblad is "incomplete, incorrect and one-sided." The
Commission for the Media has already looked into the matters raised by NRC
Handelsblad, and concluded that:

1) No irregularities have been found in the financial administration of
RNW-Bonaire.
2) There are no indications that public resources have been spent
unlawfully.
3) There are, however, activities on Bonaire which are causing unrest
locally, and that has to do with competition in the market place. Radio
Netherlands must provide more information about these activities, especially
concerning RNB Technology, and should cease all activities which are not
related directly to the core functions of Radio Netherlands.

For those who understand Dutch, there is much more information on our Dutch
Web site at http://www.rnw.nl/Cosmo/corp/html/pers20031206.html.

# posted by Andy Sennitt @ 10:48 UTC

(Radio Netherlands web site)