Saturday, September 26, 2015

The hunt on one special glimpse of murderer Volkert van der Graaf


The murder of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn
In 2002 the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was murdered by a gunshot on the parking lot of the Dutch Mediapark by Volkert van der Graaf. Van der Graaf killed Fortuyn because he saw the politician as a threat to the weaker parts of society. Van der Graaf was sentenced to 18 years in prison, but he is released on probation last year. He has strong restrictions, for example he is not permitted to search for contact with the family of Fortuyn and he is not allowed to be in touch with the media. But as you can imagine the release of Van der Graaf was a huge issue on the agenda of the media. Every journalist wanted to have a glimpse of Van der Graaf and take a picture of his first appearance outside of prison.

The hunt on the first picture
The NCTV is the organization that is responsible for the safety of Van der Graaf. It came out this week that this organization preconceived a picture of Van der Graaf's release to avoid the hunt on a first glimpse of the murderer. The picture was sold by the photographer to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. Also it turned out that part of the Dutch Government was aware of this action to avoid the hunt. The family of Fortuyn is certainly not happy about this action as Van der Graaf officially has a media prohibit. Van der Graaf risks 6 extra years in prison by violating this prohibit. The government will debate about the situation and discuss which further actions should be taken next week.

Picture an information subsidy
In my opinion this situation is a perfect example of shaping the news by an information subsidy. The NCTV knew that there would be a hunt on Van der Graaf and set up a picture to influence the media agenda. By selling it to one specific newspaper the NCTV gave The Telegraaf unique access to very wanted information. On the other hand, it is not a very smart action regarding Van der Graaf's prohibits. Although he wanted to avoid media attention, he definitely gets a lot of media attention now and I wouldn't say it's for the better. I think the photographer gets out the best of this situation as he earned a lot of money by selling the picture.


Elsa Govaarts.

2 comments:

  1. While I agree that this is an example of an information subsidy. as the NCTV distributed the picture to the Telegraaf themselves, I do not fully agree that the action in itself is such a bad thing.

    First of all, as you mentioned yourself, Van Der Graaf still has some restrictions, such as a media prohibition, after being released on probation. By releasing the photo the NCTV consciously broke one of those restrictions and therefore risked Van Der Graaf's probation term. However, if the photo would not have been taken, Van Der Graaf would still be wanted and hunted down by the press in order to obtain the first picture themselves. The NCTV likely decided that in order for Van der Graaf to be able to have a proper probation period, this was a necessary evil that needed to be done, otherwise he would be hunted down by the press for a long time, disturbing his probation.

    Something that the NCTV should have considered though, is the way in which they provided the photographer with an exclusive shot that was then sold to only one specific media channel, the Telegraaf. By doing so it put both the photographer and the paper in a luxurious position that allowed it to benefit from the situation. It would therefore have been better if the photo was sent to multiple news outlets in order to to prevent exclusivity and profit generation based on this case.
    - Marc Dols

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  2. This is an unique case which shows that the setting of a media agenda, is not always what it seems. It was supposed to be a ‘coincidental’ picture taken by a photographer and sold to the Telegraaf. However, afterwards it seemed that there was more to this picture than some people may know. This photo was not coincidental, but it was orchestrated by Van Der Graaf and his advocate. Actually, it has been found out that the OM knew about this ánd that Van Der Graaf received guards from the police to protect him while this picture was taken. This shows the importance of now always simply believing what the media shows you. Not only do the media have their own agenda. Also, organisations as the police, the OM and Van Der Graaf himself have their own agenda as well.

    - Anouk de Jong

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