Dutch Press Museum: Forbidden words and Twitter birds

The Press Museum in Amsterdam is currently hosting an exhibition of drawings by one of the Netherlands' most prominent cartoonists, Peter van Straaten. The museum's permanent collection covers 400 years of press history.
"There used to be censorship in Netherlands used to know censorship. Books were prohibited for failing to respect moral or religious norms,’ says senior curator Niels Beugeling.

Twitter bird
Cartoonist Peter van Straaten is well-known in the Netherlands for his political satire and cartoons depicting Dutch daily life. He often uses animals as symbols, and he and other political cartoonists have been making increasing use of one particular animal symbol: the Twitter bird, which has become closely associated with the Arab spring.

"At our annual exhibition of political cartoons, there were many relating to the Arab spring," says Beugeling. "Dutch cartoonists picture it in a very simplified way. The image is one of Arab dictators and blood. Arab cartoonists have a much broader view of events. They tend to draw the people and show what is actually happening."

‘Wrong’ newspapers
The Press Museum shows how media have always played an important role in revolts and wars. Beugeling mentions the Second World War as an example. "World War II showed a clear gap between journalists and artists who had the courage to speak up, and others who were cautious." Resistance newspapers were founded immediately after the German invasion. "At first, those printings were quite primitive, secretly stenciled on small sheets of paper. Later on, they became real newspapers. Many people risked their lives distributing them. Some people worked publicly for a newspaper that was collaborating with the enemy, while doing resistance work underground."

Europe’s Press centre
The Netherlands has always been in the European vanguard when it comes to the press. Germany issued the first newspaper in 1608; the Netherlands followed in 1618. "Those first newspapers mainly contained trade news from all over Europe," says Beugeling. "People wanted to know where it was safe to do business." A small elite with commercial interests used to read the newspapers, but there were also newspaper reading sessions in cafes.

In the seventeenth century, Amsterdam served as Western Europe’s press centre, publishing no less than five newspapers. "This was unique in the world," explains Beugeling. "The Dutch newspaper was even translated into English and published in English as if it was an English newspaper."

Censorship Dutch-style
Until the 1960s, every major Christian denomination or social grouping in the Netherlands had its own newspaper, TV channel and associations. There was a newspaper for the Roman Catholics, one for the Protestants, another one for the workers, etcetera. Every newspaper had its own editorial line, depending on the target group. ‘Nowadays, there is hardly any censorship in the Netherlands, but censorship was common until the 1970s,’ states Beugeling. ‘Famous author Gerard Reve was sued for blasphemy after portraying God as a donkey in one of his books. He was eventually acquitted. Beugeling says cartoonists were sometimes obliged to pay high fines for insulting the royal family in their drawings.

Occasionally cases were decided in the courtroom, but censorship came more often from within: a Catholic censor would check Roman Catholic magazines and decide beforehand what could be published. “We found some examples in our archives of advertisements for underwear on which they painted a dress over the bra, as well as a list of forbidden words which was present in several newsrooms,” says Beugeling. ‘We might laugh about it now, but at the time articles were seriously checked according to these criteria. Even a word like ‘fate’. Everything was in God’s hands so there was no such thing as fate and a Christian newspaper should reflect that.

Elite
Nowadays the Netherlands count seven big national dailies. Beugeling expects the paper version of newspapers never to disappear entirely, even though impression numbers are decreasing and people are getting their information in different ways. ‘Maybe the newspaper will become an elitist thing again, just like it was in the seventeenth century. But press freedom and freedom of expression will always be important. History shows us that – most of all at those moments when there is a lack of freedom.’