Aïcha Marghadi does in an extensive reconstruction of The Volkskrant her story about various abuses in the editorial office of NOS Sport. The former newsreader of the Sports Journal was confronted with a sexist remark from then colleague Jack van Gelder. The latter known Thursday in HLF8 that two charges of transgressive behavior have been filed against him for questionable remarks to female colleagues.
At the end of 2010, Marghadi pleaded for a mentor and presented this to editor-in-chief Maarten Nooter. Tom Egbers, who had already agreed to cooperate and is described by her as ‘Mister Studio Sport’, had to help her. However, Nooter wanted nothing to do with that. “He said that Tom had a hard time with beautiful women. I said that I was there myself and that I really wanted to. But he shook his head. He made it clear that it was serious. He said that Tom had problems in the past had had on the editorial board. He did not go into further detail, but he was firm. This was not going to happen.” Marghadi didn’t dare ask further at the time: “I stammered something like: ‘Okay, clear, thanks’. And I walked out of his room.”
Aïcha Marghadi wanted Tom Egbers as a mentor, but that was not allowed.
VanGelder
Marghadi then sounded out Van Gelder, who was willing to help. The phone conversation takes a strange turn when the presenter jokingly asks if she doesn’t want to join the bath. “I wondered if he was joking. I chattered about it a bit, but I thought: what the hell happening here? The last thing I said was: ‘Jack, I’ll see you at work’.” Van Gelder responds at the request of The Volkskrant to Marghadi’s claim, which he wants to ‘give the benefit of the doubt’. “If I did say that, I meant it as a joke, as a joke, which I couldn’t see how it got to her.”
“But if she experienced it as hurtful, then she could have spoken to me about it immediately, like: are you in the right mind, or something?”, Van Gelder wonders aloud. “Then I would have felt even more obligated, so to speak, to help her with her career, to take away the feeling that I had mistreated her.” Incidentally, Nooter does not want to respond substantively to the incident with Van Gelder that Marghadi described years ago.
The Volkskrant spoke in the past period with a total of 32 (former) employees and other stakeholders of NOS Sport. From these conversations, a picture emerges of a culture in which ‘women feel unsafe and where reports of (sexual) transgressive behavior are not treated seriously.’ Various employees are anxious and feel intimidated by the editors-in-chief and various managers. Some commentators, presenters and reporters consider themselves ‘untouchable’. These leaders of NOS Sport are systematically kept above their heads.
Jack van Gelder asked presenter to ‘take a bath’ and called colleague ‘whore’
The presenter already responded to the bath incident on Thursday.
An external confidential counselor is mapping the abuses on behalf of the NOS, after hundreds of (former) employees had reported. It concerns ‘reports of bullying, (sexual) harassment, discrimination, verbal aggression and integrity issues over a period of more than twenty years’. The study found that for too long there had been a culture in which the end result was sacred, rather than the human aspect being taken into account. The editors-in-chief are accused of ‘not having done enough with signals of transgressive behaviour’.
Martin Smith
Marghadi also had a not too pleasant meeting with then presenter Mart Smeets. “After a broadcast, I walked up to him in a crowded editorial office. I held out my hand and introduced myself. He stared at me and my hand, took it, looked at colleagues around him and said: ‘What are we going to do with this? ?'” Smeets counters The Volkskrant unable to remember the incident. “I can hardly imagine letting go of that text. Not for me, I like manners and to violate them in that way… But I have lost many memories of the past.”
Jack van Gelder was involved in more incidents around Marghadi.
Incidentally, there was another incident with Van Gelder, Marghadi recalls. “At one point he pressed a note into my hands,” said the newsreader, who left in 2012. “There was a phone number on it. I said: what is this, what should I do with this? He said that this was the number of a famous footballer who was apparently interested in me. I looked at him questioningly. But he said: ‘Yes, You Moroccans only do it together, don’t you?'” Van Gelder acknowledges having had contact with Marghadi about a football player’s request, but the alleged statement about Moroccans is incorrect, according to him.
“He had called me and said: ‘Gosh, nice girl with you, I would like to meet her sometime, can you ask if that is possible?’ I asked her that. That statement about Moroccans is really outrageous, I did not do it in any way. I have nothing to do with racism. ” It turns out that Van Gelder called a female colleague a ‘whore’. During the 2012 European Championships in Poland and Ukraine, a female employee goes with the NOS team who does not like the presenter. “If that whore comes along, I will not go,” Van Gelder is said to have said according to several sources. Despite several warnings, he continues to insult the woman in question. Incidentally, Van Gelder simply travels to the final round. The former employee does not want to respond as The Volkskrant asks for that.
Van Gelder contacts Marghadi after discussing the bathing incident with The Volkskrant. He sends a message apologizing for the “strange-looking joke.” “I can’t remember but take your word for it on this one. I regret that but trust me I never meant to hurt or frighten you. Sorry again for something I misjudged.” Meanwhile, Marghadi comes to the conclusion that she has never been welcome at the NOS. “There was nothing left of the Aïcha that entered NOS Sport there at the end.” Nevertheless, she is happy that the story is coming out. “I now want everyone to know what happened at NOS Sport. And why I left there.”