Publishers but also journalism on blast in show Newspaper

With the performance Krant, Dutch playwright Joeri Vos of De Veenfabriek aims to criticise the major Belgian newspaper operators in the Netherlands. But it also paints an unflattering picture of journalism.

Vos, he revealed beforehand, has serious concerns about the independence of news supply. After all, Dutch daily newspapers such as AD, Telegraaf, Volkskrant and NRC, as well as many magazines, are owned by major Belgian publishers DPG Media and Mediahuis. What Vos based his fears on was not clear. Perhaps 'Krant' would bring the answer.

Blasé journalists

The show begins with the end: the editor's remembrance of editor 'Vik'. She wanted to serve journalism with relevant background, but did not return from a reportage in South America.

Then the music takes over: a bassist and trombonist, assisted by automatic drums, portray the toil of the editors. That starts with a morning meeting of the Foreign Editor, who dutifully makes the rounds of the correspondents - seated in the room - with their subjects. Striking is their flat tone of speech, from which resignation and lack of inspiration looms over the subjects they are supposed to write about with passion.

Editors begin to scramble somewhat plumply thereupon, led by a nervous, scatterbrained chief Vik. She got this job just a week after her appointment. In her hustle and bustle, she has to help an incoming intern find her way around the editorial office. Male colleagues and an elderly I-have-already-been editor-in-chief complete this not-so-florid picture of an editorial team that needs to get up to speed.

Their rhythm is interrupted by news of a tsunami ravaging the coast of Chile and moving north towards the West Coast of the United States. The foreign editors react expectantly and passively until the full extent of the disaster is clear.

It is then decided that Vik, also an ex-South America specialist, should travel to Chile. How things are going in the meantime with the disaster does not really seem to concern the editors, even in any contact with correspondents in the US.

Generations of Van Thillo

That disaster is an afterthought in the newsroom heads, as a meeting is scheduled for that afternoon with Miro van Thillo, the fictional son of the Belgian newspaper owner Christian van Thillo. The backdrop shows DPG Media in large letters, lest the audience have to fantasise about who it is. Miro shows himself accommodating and committed to editing, but bounded.

This emerges during the meeting. Vik, who is apparently in no hurry for her trip, presents with a colleague results of months of research they conducted into the Van Thillo (DPG) and Leysen (Media House). Both families were wrong in the war, became rich with war booty and/or helped launder criminal assets - including from the Soviet Union. Van Thillo's current conglomeration of companies, including in tax havens, must reflect a questionable way of doing business.

During the presentation, Miro van Thillo keeps getting a-fours with series of questions for rebuttal for the article. He cannot answer them directly.

Battle remains off

Next comes the key question: will the newspaper devote a series of articles to this investigation into the owner's questionable dealings? The young Van Thillo keeps a low profile but so does the editorial board member 'Willemijn'. While this is precisely where the drama and suspense could have taken shape in the play, it remains absent. Does the chief editor collaborate or not? With what considerations?

Meanwhile, Vik learns that there are no flights from Schiphol Airport to South America to cover the tsunami there. Miro van Thillo knows the solution: she can take the family plane that is at Schiphol anyway. Despair is hardly there, she will take the plane. The outcome is, by now, well known.

The suggestion is that this Vik was first hired, then promoted to chief as a distraction to her investigation and then defused with the offer of a plane. It is the suggestion of malign influence of said publishers on the newspapers: that they want to avoid negative coverage of themselves, apparently aided by editors-in-chief of the newspapers.

(Some of these revelations about Van Thillo published Apache.be after investigation. Leysen's war record is common knowledge; as well as the growth of Van Thillo's assets from €400 million to €1.8 billion, mainly thanks to Flemish subsidies and good entrepreneurship).

In previews of this Newspaper piece, including in the Volkskrant, writer and director Joeri Vos, artistic director of the Veenfabriek, states: 'I actually have a lot of admiration for journalists. I focus more on the top bosses, who earn extremely large sums of money on the backs of those who work super integrity rock hard. In art, you're allowed to kick up a bit to untouchable, rich, powerful figures, I think.'

He believes he presents the editorial board as a tableau of "right-thinking, well-spoken, conscientious figures". The play Newspaper does not give that impression. From the first editorial meeting, to overtly contact-disturbed manners - especially with the intern - and the complete limp of urgency at 'the biggest tsunami ever', no pretty picture of this foreign newsroom emerges.

Volkskrant

Joeri Vos was allowed to spend a day at the editorial office of the Volkskrant. It is not mentioned by name, but with the evoked atmosphere there is no doubt that the activist author gets his inspiration from there. The audience need not guess at the names of DPG Media/Van Thillo and Mediahuis/Leysen, nor that they are sly bad guys.

Herien Wensink of the Volkskrant even asked Christian van Thillo for her preview, not usual when companies (like Shell) are the subject of art. Van Thillo left the following on record: 'I understood via via that it would be pretty harsh. That's unpleasant, of course. But if it is pure satire, then I should be able to stand it...In any case, I will not go there myself, I am not like that; I am not a masochist.'

And she even asked whether Van Thillo is considering legal action. Answer: 'If people would take the content as serious accusations that damage my good name, then maybe. But I expect not.'

Van Thillo can go quietly, as the allegations about exploitation of editors are not fierce, especially given the rather flat form in which they are told during a drawn-out, emotionless presentation. Nor should Van Thillo have been tempted to consider a lawsuit against art, and he can enjoy nicely fitting music and set effects.