A majority of the Dutch House of Representatives has said it sees no place for right-wing broadcaster Ongehoord Nederland (ON!) within the country’s public broadcasting system, arguing the outlet repeatedly fails to follow the rules. The final decision, though, rests with the responsible minister, not parliament, and no formal vote to strip ON! of its licence has been held.
The stance cuts across the political spectrum. Democrats 66 (D66), the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the three parties in Prime Minister Rob Jetten’s minority Government, together with the left-wing opposition Progressief Nederland (PRO), have told the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD) the broadcaster has broken the rules “time and again”.
The criticism follows a report by the independent visitation commission of Netherlands Public Broadcasting (NPO), published on May 11, 2026, which found ON!’s news provision unreliable and said its journalistic quality had to improve. The report warned that the reliability of the entire public broadcaster’s information provision was under pressure. The commission called that finding “serious”.
Letschert is due to decide after the summer recess whether ON! can keep its provisional status. A media debate in the House of Representatives is scheduled for September 24.
In early June 2026, all member broadcasters except the neutral task broadcasters NOS and NTR signed a joint letter to Letschert saying they could no longer work with ON! and asking her to take “appropriate measures”. They argued ON!’s conduct damages the credibility of the public system. On June 6, the NPO said it saw no way to bring the member broadcasters and ON! closer together.
VVD MP Erik van der Maas told AD that a broadcaster funded with taxpayers’ money must follow the rules, and that there is no place in the public system for one that structurally refuses to.
D66 MP Ouafa Oualhadj said freedom of expression remained important but a place within the public broadcaster was not an automatic right, adding: “Anyone paid with taxpayers’ money must abide by the rules. They apply to everyone. If you break them time and again, then at some point it is over.”
ON! director Peter Vlemmix has rejected the criticism. In June he told AD the broadcaster was fighting “to survive” and to keep what he described as the only genuinely different voice within the public system.
Ongehoord Nederland was founded on November 25, 2019. It positioned itself as an alternative to what its founders described as one-sided mainstream media coverage, particularly on immigration, EU policy, climate measures and Dutch cultural identity. The name translates as “Unheard Netherlands,” a claim to represent voices it says are ignored by outlets like the NOS.
In July 2021, then media minister Arie Slob granted ON! provisional recognition as an aspirant broadcaster for the 2022-2026 period, following advice from the NPO, the Council for Culture and the Dutch Media Authority. It began broadcasting in 2022, with its first television programme airing on February 22, 2022, and received an annual subsidy of €3.6 million. ON! remains an aspirant broadcaster on a probationary footing until the end of 2028.
It quickly became associated with the Right and drew support from Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) and Thierry Baudet’s Forum for Democracy (FvD).
ON! had 38,818 members at the end of 2024, below the 50,000 it gathered to enter the system.
ON!’s programming has addressed mass immigration, cultural change, EU overreach, climate policy, “replacement” narratives and scepticism toward mainstream reporting on events such as the war in Ukraine.
Letschert’s decision, and the September 24 debate, will determine whether the broadcaster stays in the system.
Conservative Dutch public broadcaster, Ongehoord Nederland, has ousted its own president and founder, Arnold Karskens, citing serious complaints about his working practices, in what Karskens has called a “coup”. https://t.co/7FlPa1upKD
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 6, 2024
