A fruitless battle with ON! is costing the NPO tons of money in outside lawyers.
Partly due to the legal battle with Ongehoord Nederland (ON!), the non-profit lost nearly eight tons of taxpayer money in external legal costs. Of this, more than €6,000 went to Zuidas NautaDutilh. The remaining €182,000 went to the British company Bird & Bird in The Hague. This is evident from invoices issued over the past two years, published by the Dutch public broadcaster’s umbrella organization WOO at the request of the authors of this article.
The individual claims range from €241.40 (Bird & Bird, February 2023) to €83,298.22 (NautaDutilh, October 2023). The final result could be much higher if it goes ahead! He managed to recover almost half of his €600,000 legal costs from the non-profit, announced Arnold Carskens, president of ON!
WOO’s request only concerns the battle with ON! However, some of NautaDutilh’s invoices also concern other matters. The extent of this part cannot be seen, because the nonprofit has colored all the invoice specifications. Only the total amounts are visible. Even when asked further, the nonprofit does not want to specify how much money is involved in these other matters, nor what the matters are.
The nonprofit could have reduced the bill significantly by leaving control to its lawyers. But the chairman of the nonprofit’s board, Frederik Leeflang, who himself was a lawyer for Zuidas for many years, preferred expensive external consultants. The battle with ON! began in mid-2022, when the nonprofit wanted to fine the newly joined broadcaster after the nonprofit’s ombudsman, Marjo Smit, decided that ON! had repeatedly violated the public broadcaster’s press code.
The non-profit organization imposed three fines on the young broadcaster totaling 272,000 euros. In the end, Leflang On! was removed from public order. Leflang stated in a press release that the non-profit organization “values editorial freedom, but there are limits when it comes to racist or discriminatory statements.”
Since the broadcaster had consistently refused to cooperate, the non-profit wanted the then State Minister for Media, Gunai Oslo (D66), to be put on! He would be removed from the application. The ministry refused. At the beginning of this year, the non-profit also withdrew two fines. In the end, the result of two years of legal battle and the hiring of external lawyers at great expense was a fine of 84,000 euros.
In response, a spokesperson for the nonprofit wrote that the umbrella organization “has a very competent legal department.” “Because we anticipated from the beginning that this matter would end up in court, we saw it appropriate to involve lawyers from the outset.” The costs were incurred, among other things, for advice, sanction decisions, and objections by others against ON! and WOO’s decisions. According to the spokesperson, informed decisions were always made in the case. “But of course we would have preferred not to incur these costs.”
Under Leeflang, the non-profit often hires external consultants. For example, consulting firm Boer & Croon received €900,000 to write a comprehensive public order strategy in collaboration with member broadcasters under the title Continuously in Connection. In 2022, Leeflang’s first year as chairman, the non-profit spent €10.7 million on “non-working personnel,” €2.4 million more than the previous year, according to annual reports.
Last year it was €9.3 million. The cost item “Board of Directors and Staff” has increased from €6.6 million to €11.2 million in 2023 since Leeflang’s arrival.
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