Flemish Parliament asks CEO public broadcaster to explain senior management dismissals

The Flemish Parliament will convene an ad hoc committee on Wednesday to discuss the problematic situation at the Flemish public broadcaster VRT. CEO Frederik Delaplace will be invited to offer explanations on why two members of the senior management team were recently dismissed.

VRT's board of directors last week decided to make drastic changes in the senior management team of the public broadcaster. Both Ricus Jansegers, director of Content, and Lotte Vermeir, network manager of the channels VRT 1 and VRT Canvas, had to resign because of internal conflicts and concerns about their leadership style. ​

The final decisions were taken on the basis of a welfare report by an external mediator, Dutch professor Rob van Eijbergen. He was appointed by the VRT management this spring after stories and anonymous testimonies in various media about Ricus Jansegers' authoritarian leadership style.

Discussions about the decisions flared up over the past few days, especially about the dismissal of Lotte Vermeir. Several (former) VRT employees wrote an open letter in support of Vermeir. Another group was “hurt” by that support and also expressed those feelings in an (anonymous) open letter.

The case is now also having political consequences. The political parties Groen and Open VLD both demanded a meeting of the media committee in the Flemish Parliament.

The Extended Bureau of the Flemish Parliament, the body that coordinates the political functions of the parliament, has now backed that demand. As the media committee has not yet been constituted, an ad hoc committee meeting will take place on Wednesday. Besides CEO Frederik Delaplace, outgoing media minister Benjamin Dalle, VRT president Frieda Brepoels and mediator Rob van Eijbergen are also invited.

^{#FlandersNewsService | VRT CEO Frederik Delaplace during the signing of the VRT Management Agreement, in Brussels, 10 December 2020 © BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM}