No-one wants to broadcast Wilders' film

H/T DutchNews.nl

Thursday 06 March 2008

No Dutch public or commercial television station is willing to broadcast MP Geert Wilder’s anti-Koran film, the Volkskrant reports on Thursday.

The paper says Wilders insists the entire 10 to 15-minute feature be screened, a condition no broadcaster is willing to meet.

‘We would not do that with a film produced by the Christian Democrats or the Liberals and also not for [Geert Wilder’s party] PVV,’ Herman van Gelderen, head of NRCV programme Netwerk said. ‘We are also extremely cautious about encouraging hatred and discrimination.’

Nova editor Carel Kuyl told the paper that Wilders was willing to allow a preview of his film on the condition programme chiefs agreed to broadcast it anyway. That is ‘bizarre’, Kuyl was quoted as saying.

Wilders will now launch his film, titled Fitna, on the internet later this month. The Volkskrant reports that the press centre in The Hague, Nieuwspoort, has agreed to the presentation of Wilders' film on March 28, pending security arrangements.

Meanwhile, the AD reports that the Dutch anti-terrorism coordinator has raised the terror alarm level from ‘limited’ to ‘substantial’. Both Wilders’ film and the extension of the Dutch military mission in Afghanistan influenced the decision, the paper says.