The former network manager of VRT1 and VRT Canvas, Lotte Vermeir, has repeatedly sounded the alarm about inappropriate behavior by Ricus Jansegers, the content director who had to resign together with her in September.
This is evident from an email that Vermeir sent to Flemish Minister of Media Cieltje Van Achter (N-VA) where There quotes from. The email also arrived The Standard justifiably. “I suspect that you have not been informed correctly,” Vermeir writes. She is responding to statements made by Van Achter in the Flemish Parliament two weeks ago. He then stated that VRT CEO Frederik Delaplace had told her that he was “not aware of any complaints about inappropriate behavior” by Jansegers.
Like The Standard As previously reported, the VRT top has been repeatedly informed by Vermeir since 2022 about Jansegers’s problematic behavior, according to her. “I discussed it with the HR director (Karen Donders, ed.) and the CEO, Frederik Delaplace,” Vermeir now states in her email. “Because little happened with this, I also reported it to the chief of staff of the Minister of Media (Benjamin Dalle (CD&V), predecessor of Van Achter, ed.).”
She then writes how her reports “cost her dearly”, in the form of a negative evaluation in 2023, by Jansegers, who was Vermeir’s superior. “It wasn’t about my results, it was about my lack of loyalty. I also reported this again to Karen Donders and Frederik Delaplace. I literally said that the conversation about the evaluation was cross-border.” She says her request to investigate the matter further was not followed. “I was given a coach, a mediator, to learn how to deal with Ricus.”
Other complainants
The same year, four other female employees tried to jointly address Jansegers’ behavior, says Vermeir, but an internal coach allegedly refused to support them in this. According to information from The Standard This concerns all high-ranking people within the VRT. At an external prevention service, Vermeir was told that a complaint through them would result in a report that would go to the CEO, “whom we now knew was minimizing these complaints and worse, that they could lead to a negative evaluation.”
Rich Jansegers — © Maarten De Bouw
This year she again raised issues with HR director Karen Donders, including the rude statements that Jansegers allegedly made, where The Standard reported, such as “I’ll cut your balls off with an unsharp knife”. Donders would not have described it as toxic. Vermeir also filed a whistleblower report and raised the issue with various confidential counselors and prevention services, but received no response, she says. In total there would be about ten reports.
-“We personally reported this to several people in the office of the CEO, in the office of the HR director, even to the chief of staff, because we received no response. Where should you go if you want to address toxic leadership from a director?”
Take revenge
The email comes at an unpleasant time for Delaplace. He is expected in the Flemish Parliament on Thursday to present the VRT’s annual report, as he does every year. Several MPs who are critical of the VRT leadership are keen to talk about the scandals at the VRT sooner.
Frederick Delaplace. — © Bahnmuller Frank
Such as Gwendolyn Rutten (Open VLD), who has already expressed strong criticism of the VRT leadership. According to her, this violates the protection of internal whistleblowers. Vermeir was fired after an investigation in her department, conducted by the internal welfare department, according to Rutten at the request of CEO Delaplace. That investigation was initiated, according to Rutten, by the head of that service. But that person was informed barely a week before that Vermeir was a whistleblower. According to Rutten, this may indicate that the VRT leadership wanted to take revenge on Vermeir.
“If a recognized whistleblower is dismissed, there is ‘a presumption of retaliation’,” Rutten writes in an opinion piece in this newspaper. “For the VRT, the presumption of revenge against a whistleblower applies today, until proven otherwise. That can count for a value-driven public broadcaster.” Some, such as Bram Jaques (Green), are calling for Delaplace’s resignation.
Minister Van Achter says that she has given the email “the appropriate response by delivering it to the welfare service of our public broadcaster”. However, that is the agency that drew up the report on the basis of which Vermeir was fired. She calls making statements about a specific personnel file “inappropriate”. “What does count is that the VRT takes its responsibility and does everything to prevent inappropriate behavior.” The VRT did not want to respond.
