Belgium’s DPG Media, publisher of newspapers such as de Volkskrant, Trouw, AD and Het Parol, fired director and publisher Jack Smits in 2016 for sexual misconduct. The company confirmed this after entrepreneur Eve Giggrath revealed it in his podcast, Giggs wrote, among other things, de Volkskrant†

Smits is said to have repeatedly imposed himself on female employees. In 2016, one of the victims reported to CEO Christian Van Thielu. He called in an outside researcher who found that Smeets had made a number of “inappropriate developments”. This led to a reprimand. Shortly thereafter, when management again received a complaint about Smeets, he was fired.

The reason for the dismissal was not disclosed

The departure was announced, but DPG did not reveal the reason at the time. He suggested that Smits leave on his own initiative. Van Thilo candidly thanked him for the essential role he played in the company as a leader, inspiration, and inspiration.

Van Thilo confirmed the reason for sacking Gijrath. According to Van Thilo, the cause was not revealed at the victims’ request. Several DPG newspaper editors were also aware of Smits’ misconduct at the time, but decided not to publish anything about it.

De Volkskrant writes that Philippe Remarque, then editor in chief, considered it a “matter of internal staff”. According to Remarque and Trouw’s editor-in-chief, Sis van der Laan, prior to the outbreak of the MeToo discussion, there was no journalistic interest in the infringing behavior.

“Given the current discussion and its importance, this consideration may now turn out differently,” says van der Laan. in trough†