This is getting to look like a striptease…
The far-right politician Geert Wilders, whose planned anti-Koran film has the Netherlands holding its breath, has revealed that his long-awaited opus will be delayed by two months. There had been speculation he might show it in his party’s broadcasting slot on Dutch television on Friday evening. Viewers instead got shots of Wilders walking along a beach repeating his complaints about Muslims (shown a few minutes into this Dutch TV interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali). For more on his views, he’s here and here spelling them out in English.
The 10-minute movie is now due out in March, Wilders said in an interview in Saturday’s De Telegraaf. This comes after a rising chorus of concern about possible protests against the film and a call from Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende for restraint and reports that Dutch embassies were preparing to evacuate Dutch citizens abroad if things got out of hand.
The Rotterdam daily NRC Handelsblad smelt a rat. “Geert Wilders says he’s making a film. Nobody has seen it yet. But his plan has kept the media and politicians in its grip for two months now,” it commented. “In terms of political PR, Geert Wilders is putting on a great show… Wilders can dominate the news because journalists and politicians are sytematically allowing themselves to be taken hostage by him. Without a loudspeaker, there is no platform. Without political reactions, there is no series to watch.”
Is it that simple? Are the media being taken hostage by politicians like Wilders?
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ref: Medien-Hype
Around 500 reporters and TV-people showed up for
a 5 men anti-Wilders demonstration in Amsterdam last sunday. This guarded by a 100 men policeforce with watercanons and dogs…
Am Samstag verlief dann eine Demo auf dem Dam vor dem Palais der Königin ungefähr so ab. Gefühlte 500 Journalisten und Kameraleute befassten sich mit vielleicht 5 Demonstranten – und das alles bewacht von 100 Polizisten, Wasserwerfern, Hunden usw. Das ZDF war auch dabei…
- Posted by paulSams·tag [?s?mzt?g] (sahmz’ tawg) = Saturday.
- Posted by paulnot sunday
[…] twist in the saga surrounding the controversial film by far-right leader Geert Wilders (we’ve blogged on this before). In the letter, Iran’s Justice Minister Gholamhossein Elham asked his Dutch […]
- Posted by Iran wants European law to squelch anti-Koran film - FaithWorld[…] Nobody has yet seen a 15-minute film about the Koran, which Wilders calls a fascist book, but it has already led to anti-Dutch protests and outraged Muslims worldwide. Clips purporting to be his film have appeared on YouTube, prompting a blockage in access to the popular site in Pakistan that temporarily closed it down worldwide. […]
- Posted by How should the media handle the Dutch anti-Koran film? - FaithWorld