Politics, lies and videotapes

On 13 November, a manipulated excerpt surfaced of an interview with FVD MP Gideon van Meijeren. The video falsely suggests that Van Meijeren called for a violent revolution. By a cut in the excerpt, the context - which shows that Van Meijeren is actually a supporter of non-violent and peaceful forms of protest, so-called velvet revolutions - is deliberately withheld.

The snippet was circulated on Twitter by relatively unknown Twitter user Marina Meeuwisse (@mmeeuw). Her account contains a curious collection of manipulated photo and video material, almost obsessively attempting to cast FVD in a bad light. 

For a long time, Meeuwisse's posts - not least because of their low reliability level - could count on little audience. But recently her posts have been cited by cartel politicians and cartel media, without first being fact-checked.  (This dishonest woman has for some time been similarly manipulating videos about John Laughland.)

The latest stitch-up resulting from Meeuwisse's cut-and-paste is the claim that Gideon van Meijeren called for the “occupation” of the Lower House. This is a demonstrable lie. Note that the role of establishment media and politicians in this is even more pernicious than Meeuwisse's. 

Even in Meeuwisse's doctored video, Van Meijeren nowhere uses the word "occupy". Yet last night the NOS headlined: "Van Meijeren talks about occupying Chamber". The tone was set. 

Politicians, including the prime minister, tumbled over each other to "condemn" the alleged statement.

Even "experts" like criminal lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops elaborated on the disinformation that Gideon van Meijeren allegedly said that the Lower House should be "occupied". This serious pollution of the public debate is the veritable attack on democracy. 

Only after repeated requests from Van Meijeren himself, NOS reluctantly decided to rectify. But, as is often the case, the harm had already been done. The original lie has received far more publicity than the correction - and the false frame has taken on a life of its own. 

In the words of the old saying, “A lie gets halfway round the world while the truth is putting its boots on.”

FVD demands a rectification from all media that have so far failed to comply.