Dutch politicians slam public broadcaster merger plan


Dutch politicians have slammed a proposed merger between two of the country’s largest public broadcasters because they believe the two channels will benefit too greatly.

The coalition party VVD and supporter group The Freedom Party are lobbying media minister Marja van Bijsterveldt to ban the merger. The Dutch Public Broadcaster authority (NPO) had proposed that the number of public broadcasters in the Netherlands be reduced from 21 to eight to reflect changes in the way that the country is governed. Previously the public broadcasting system was based on the ‘pillarisation’ system that dominated Dutch society.