Media company SBS, parent company of the commercial channels Vier and Vijf, and presenter Jan Kooijman had to answer Wednesday afternoon before the Brussels criminal court for harassment, electronic nuisance and defamation. In preparation for the ‘Hunted’ program in 2016, they allegedly harassed a former veterinarian, although the man would have repeatedly indicated that he did not want to participate in the program. The Halle-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office requested a suspension for both.
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The program “Hunted” on Five dealt with cases of people, mainly women, who had been victims of stalking or cyberstalking. Together with a team of experts, presenter Jan Kooijman sought out the attackers and confronted them with the facts that they were accused of.
One of those alleged attackers was the former veterinarian NS According to the Halle-Vilvoorde prosecutor’s office, the man had repeatedly indicated that he did not want to participate in the program, or at least did not want to appear in front of the camera.
“He wanted to tell the editorial staff in a conversation without cameras, and explain, among other things, that there were mutual complaints about stalking,” said the public prosecutor. “The production house did not like that, because such a thing obviously does not produce good television, and the man then started filming. For example, they rang the bell at his front door without permission. ”
The public prosecutor is of the opinion that when making the program, SBS and Kooijman did not or insufficiently realized that they were breaking the law and have since taken their responsibility. For example, they would have already reached an agreement with NS, which no longer asked for compensation. The prosecution could therefore live with a suspension for the media company and the presenter. However, they both demanded the acquittal.
“The recordings of the program show that there has been six contact with NS”, they said. “Four times on the initiative of SBS, twice on the initiative of NS. Who never said that he wanted to be left alone, he only wanted to negotiate about his conditions to participate in the broadcast. SBS could not agree with those conditions, they wanted footage of a possible conversation with the man. NS was therefore contacted to give him the opportunity to tell his side of the story, which is very different from deliberately and seriously disrupting his peace of mind. ”
According to the defense, there is no question of harassment or electronic nuisance. Nor would there be any slander: “Everything has been done to make NS unrecognizable and unidentifiable. The program makers never intended to harm anyone, they intended to make a socially relevant program. ”
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