Frans Klein, director of Video at the non-profit organization, announced yesterday that he will temporarily resign from his position pending the outcome of the investigation into the abuses that took place in The world goes on (DDD). Who is Frans Klein and why has he been discredited before?
Klein is one of the most powerful men in Hilversum. It is not for nothing that he has been nicknamed ‘Mao of the Media Park’. But at 23, when he begins his career in television, he is still just one of the employees in the finance department of what was then still VARA.
He goes all the way into broadcasting. He works as a clerk in the classical music department and later as head of planning and production. Ten years after his debut at the VARA, the born Hilversummer is at the helm of the broadcaster. In 2004, Klein became director of media and played a major role in the merger with BNN, which resulted in BNNVARA in 2014.
As director of media at VARA, he has well-known names under his wing such as Jeroen Pauw, Paul de Leeuw and Jack Spijkerman. Under Klein, the weekday talk show also begins in 2005 The world goes on (DDD). Initially with various presenters, including Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. The evening program will only be a real success if Van Nieuwkerk presents it himself.
‘The courage and courage to change things’
Klein has keen TV vision and can come up with innovative formulas. Upon his appointment as director of television at the NPO, then chairman of the board Shula Rijxman praised him for, among other things, this innovation. “He has the guts and courage to change things,” he says.
This happens regularly in the following years. Sometimes these are unpopular measures, such as deleting similar programs Jargon, The man bites the dog, Sesame street a suitor Scammed in Other times. The various public broadcasters are becoming less and less protagonists. Klein ensures tighter programming on NPO’s three TV channels and makes NPO1 the market leader.
Klein then went on to become a powerful TV chief at the public broadcaster and channel director of NPO1 (he later relinquishes that second position). This annoys broadcasters and program producers, who don’t know which side to take. Klein is nicknamed “Mao van het Mediapark” and “Napoleon van Hilversum”. The NPO and Klein in particular would be the absolute rulers when it comes to palimpsests in Hilversum, he writes Follow the money.
The head of the broadcast will be discredited in 2019 as NRC extension writes that Klein holds a position on the board of directors of a letterbox company with a trust fund in a tax haven. Klein says he does it to help his brother, with whom he owns two Thai restaurants in the Netherlands. The NPO is conducting an integrity investigation because Klein has never reported this dual function.
Volg dit onderwerp
Receive notifications about news from Matthijs van Nieuwkerk
Klein allegedly threatened negative consequences after an integrity investigation
Klein’s statements are also leaked. It seems that he celebrated his 25th birthday at the VARA at the broadcaster’s expense in his restaurant. Former BNNVARA director Gert-Jan Hox provides information on statements for integrity investigation, Argos announced earlier this year.
Klein doesn’t appreciate Hox’s action, to put it mildly. In a telephone conversation he allegedly threatened that it could have consequences for BNNVARA. The NPO reports in a response that Klein cannot recall this statement. He admits he crossed the line with the emotional phone call to Hox.
After the article de Volkskrant since last Saturday about behind-the-scenes abuse DDD Klein’s position is under pressure again. Klein knew how things could go in the newsroom, but he never intervened. In response to that article, Klein says, “I’m not proud of it, but that work culture was so tough in many places in Hilversum.”
Klein now takes a step back. By doing so, he wants to avoid a discussion on the independence of the investigation that is now underway. He temporarily resigns from his post, but it is not clear how long the investigation will last.
