‘He can’t bring himself to say this’

#bring

Criticism of Johan Derksen is increasing after his statements about the culture of fear at broadcaster WNL. The analyst from Today Inside was criticized on Wednesday evening by Merel Ek and Olcay Gulsen; a day later Angela de Jong is also not gentle.

Derksen did not appear to be very impressed by the former employees of WNL, including Eva Jinek, Roos Moggré, Leonie ter Braak and Merel Westrik, who came out on Wednesday about the behavior of broadcaster Bert Huisjes. “Those types who are still complaining about that eleven years later, they should have said something then. And who are they? That little girl from Tukkerland who is blowing up balloons somewhere. So she didn’t make it,” Derksen said, for example, about Leonie ter Braak.

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Huisjes allegedly told an employee who returned from maternity leave that she had to lose weight. Olcay Gulsen and Merel Ek were shocked by that, but Derksen said: “Do you want a pig like that in the picture?” Gulsen said that Derksen ‘cannot make it’ to say that and presenter Wilfred Genee was also critical. “Stop it, man, what is that?” Later in the broadcast, Derksen spoke of a joke. Alleged pregnancy discrimination – employees who became pregnant had their contracts not extended or were ‘punished in the schedule’ – did not seem to bother him either.

Also read: Van der Gijp gets up and immediately walks away: ‘Fireworks in the dressing room’

In her column for the Algemeen Dagblad De Jong wonders whether Derksen has empathy. “Perhaps that’s what I find saddest about the constant discussion about inappropriate behavior and all those old farts who stubbornly refuse to pull their heads out of their hairy asses. Bert Huisjes, Fons van Westerloo, Loek Hermans, but also Johan Derksen who of course went wild again on those ‘tutjes’ on Wednesday evening in Today Inside – they are all fathers. I always wonder if they would react differently if their own children were the target of a sexist bully stuck in the 1950s at work. Or do they simply not have an ounce of empathy?” she writes.

Watch the discussion at the table at Today Inside in the video below.