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Judge bans broadcast of SBS program Undercover in the Netherlands

The judge in Amsterdam last month had an episode of Undercover in the Netherlands (SBS6) banned because broadcast would cause “irreparable damage” to a sadomasochistic horse dealer. TV maker Alberto Stegeman accuses the man in the banned episode of sexually transgressive behavior with an underage horse girl. According to the judge, however, this was not the case and Stegeman had “the intention to provoke abuse”.

The horse dealer, who had filed the case, had placed an advertisement with his wife on an erotic dating site: “Girl wanted for jumping stable”. He and his wife participate in BDSM, a sexual role play between master and slave, for which they were looking for a horse girl, possibly for a fee – to be combined with work at the riding school.

Stegeman hired a sex worker to infiltrate the riding school. She pretended to be a 19-year-old job applicant and secretly recorded her contacts with the horse owner. In the various conversations with the woman, the horse dealer made it clear that SM sex can only take place after explicit permission. Then he rejected the girl, as unsuitable for both the riding arena and the SM studio. She persisted, however, and she lowered her age to seventeen. The man said that the position was not intended for minors.

According to the judge, the case was not suitable for a broadcast about sexually transgressive behavior by an employer towards an employee in all kinds of ways, including because “there was never any question of an employment relationship.”

Unconventional Methods

The fact that the decoy girl lied about her age also does not sit well with the judge: “When it became clear after the first conversations that [de paardenhouder] was open about his quest for a long-term sexual love triangle in the BDSM sphere and that did not result in any transgressive behavior to dedicate a broadcast to, Noordkaap has reached the age of [de sekswerker] adjusted downwards, apparently to create an abuse in that way, while she had no indication that [de paardenman] was looking for an underage girl. On the contrary.” Hence the conclusion of the court: “Given the way in which the defendant provoked the ‘abuse’ and the expected irreparable damage for the plaintiff, broadcasting video and audio material is prohibited.”

With his production company Noordkaap, journalist Alberto Stegeman (Almelo, 1972) makes reality programs for SBS6, such as save my vacation, stalked, in Unsolved Cases. He has been making since 2005 Undercover in the Netherlands, in which he exposes crimes and abuses through infiltration. Thanks to the program, several scammers and criminals have already been brought to justice. Stegeman himself had to appear in court several times because of his unconventional journalistic methods. Last year he was convicted by the criminal court for placing a fake bomb in the barracks near Oldebroek; in 2014 for forging a Schiphol pass; and in 2007 for illegally filming at the home of a Justice Department official who dealt in illegal weapons.

The advance ban on journalistic publications is very rare in the Netherlands because this is a serious restriction on freedom of expression, in particular the freedom of the press. In these types of lawsuits, the judge must consider on a case-by-case basis which weighs more heavily: the freedom of expression or other fundamental rights of the data subjects, such as the right to privacy, or to the protection of honor and reputation. In this case, the judge considered the fundamental rights of the horse owner to be more important than those of the journalist, especially because Stegeman was in no way able to demonstrate the social importance of his posting. In 2010, the judge also ordered a broadcast of Undercover in the Netherlands forbidden, and even then it was a horse dealer. She would sell sick slaughter horses as if they were perfectly healthy animals. This ban was overturned on appeal.

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