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Saturday, November 6, 2004

UPDATED We will not be censored

Since Van Gogh was murdered partly because of making the film Submission, in which the abuse of women in Islam is criticized, it seems very fitting that some local tv stations (RTV Noord Holland, RTV Utrecht) are considering to broadcast the film again. This of course will increase the chance of retaliation against them, but editor-in-chief Dink Binnendijk says he won't be stopped by that. Instead, extra security precautions will be taken. Battlestations!
I am however disappointed by the decision of national tv station VPRO not to rerun the film. They try to shift the blame on MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who corroborated with Theo van Gogh in making the film. Hirsi Ali, currently in hiding, doesn't want to provide 'context' to the film and thus the VPRO won't broadcast it. This to me seems to be total and utter nonsense, since the VPRO has stock footage in which Hirsi Ali provides all the 'context' anyone could reasonably need. It seems to me they were trying to use her as a preemptive lightning rod for any Islamist backlash. Good for her she didn't fall for it.
Apparently, to quote a famous Dutch comedian, the events of Tuesday have awakened the animal inside the VPRO: the chicken.

Update 20.00: Website Fok mentions that Rotterdam tv station TV West doesn't want to broadcast Submission since they fear for the safety of their employees. Right. Meanwhile, here are the email addresses of the VPRO and RTV West if any of you want to send them a note just how you feel about them giving in to Jihadi demands: tegenlicht@vpro.nl and west@rtvwest.nl. Yes, nearly all Dutch are able to read English.

Update 20.40: To my astonishment, it was just announced that the Stedelijk Museum (where a lot of modern art is displayed) has decided to cancel the screening of Submission which had been planned for tonight. They apparently were afraid it might cause an uproar. Funny how different people have different priorities. I'm more concerned that now it won't. Their email address is info@stedelijk.nl.

Update 22.01: RTV Noord-Holland and RTV Utrecht have backtracked on their earlier decision to broadcast Submission. This is really strange. You don't let the largest newspaper of the country write an article about something and then suddenly change your mind. I can only hope they've been ordered to cancel the broadcast, or have some other damn good reason, as I am severely disappointed. So far, both stations are refusing to comment.

11:47

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HI
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LadyBird (ip:62.131.12.133) 6 November 2004 - 10:39 uur


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