Guarantee for programmes with religious contents on Dutch public TV

Christian political parties CDA and ChristenUnie are adamant that these programmes continue to be broadcast due to the fact that religious TV organizations like Jewish   Radio and TV will disappear from the ether.  PvdA (Labour Party) and SP (Socialist Party) are not insensible to this endeavour. This appeared to be the case during a debate about public radio en TV in the parliament.

Junior Minister Sander dekker finds that “weltanschauung” (philosophy, religion and ideologies) are a task that has to be fulfilled by all public radio and TV organizations, he also wants to reach agreements in this field.  All religious radio and TV organizations demand that at least 15 million euro remain available for these programmes when they (the religious radio and TV organizations) will be no longer able to broadcast.

The director of the Jewish Radio and TV organization, Mr. Alfred Eddelstein was present during the debate in the parliament and declared:  “It seems that the outlines for this guarantee agreement begin to take shape for our programmes from the year 2016.   This is a salve for our wounded feelings after all the sad tidings of the last months.  It is of course bad news that Jewish Radio and TV disappear from the ether, but it would be much worse if the unique pluriformity of the Dutch broadcasting system is totally abandoned and it seems therefore  that this guarantee agreement in preparation will bring some alleviation to this situation.”