{"id":152807,"date":"2023-03-31T11:26:50","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T09:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=152807"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:43","slug":"board-members-higher-education-media-boycott-conference-due-to-arrival-of-laurens-buijs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2023\/03\/31\/board-members-higher-education-media-boycott-conference-due-to-arrival-of-laurens-buijs\/","title":{"rendered":"Board members higher education media boycott conference with Laurens Buijs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because UvA scholar and anti-woke activist Laurens Buijs is invited to a conference for independent higher education media, a board member of the Kring van Hoofdredacteuren has stepped down. Two other board members of the umbrella organisation, of which Erasmus Magazine is also part, refuse to participate in the conference.<\/p>\n

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Laurens Buijs as a guest in the Youtube channel of Flavio Pasquino, a self-declared complot theorist.<\/span><\/p>

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The national conference for higher education media will take place in Groningen on 13 April. Buijs was tipped as a participant in a panel discussion on \u2018wokeism\u2019 in January on the advice of the chair of the Kring, after Buijs published an opinion piece at UvA news medium Folia, in which he argued that the \u2018woke culture\u2019 threatens academic freedom at his faculty<\/a>. \u201cAt that moment, he seemed a suitable candidate and was invited by the Groningen organisation\u201d, said Ries Agterberg, chair of the Kring van Hoofdredacteuren.<\/p>\n

Radicalised<\/h2>\n\t
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\n\t\t\u2018No one will just get the space to spout hate speech\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t–<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRob Siebelink\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption>\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Now Agterberg and his fellow board members take a different view of Buijs\u2019 suitability. \u201cIn recent months, Buijs has radicalised at lightning speed,\u201d Agterberg believes. He cites as an example that Buijs liked a picture on Twitter of a swastika made of progress flags<\/a>. The scholar blogged about the so-called world reptilian government<\/a> and called on the trans community to speak out about the attack on a primary school in Nashville because of \u2018the radicalisation in their own ranks<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Kring called on the organising Groningen media to cancel Buijs, but the Ukrant<\/em> (of the RuG) and Hanzemag<\/em> (Hanzehogeschool) did not agree. A conversation between the Groningen editors-in-chief and the Kring did not lead to an acceptable compromise for all parties. Ukrant<\/em> editor-in-chief Rob Siebelink understands the issues that other editors-in-chief have with Buijs, but did not want to cancel him. \u201cHe is indeed radicalised. But we also have people with very different views on stage, and a strong moderator, so no one will just get the space to spout hate speech.\u201d Besides Buijs, diversity officer Charlotte Wekker of the Hanzehogeschool and Sahar Meradji, creator of the Powned series Ik woke van jou<\/em>, are also taking part in the debate.<\/p>\n

Siebelink: \u201cIf we cancel Buijs now, we indirectly prove those people right who cry that all universities are so leftist. Besides, I find it very interesting to hear how someone thinks that I totally disagree with. I am not a moralist, but a journalist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fact-free nonsense<\/h2>

That Buijs is coming after all was reason for the Kring\u2019s three other board members to boycott the congress. Saskia Bonger (editor-in-chief of the TU Delft medium Delta<\/em>) decided to quit the board altogether. \u201cI think the debate cannot be conducted properly with someone like Laurens Buijs. I\u2019m all for letting all kinds of voices be heard, but that doesn\u2019t mean you have to hurl unfiltered fact-free nonsense into the debate. During a debate it is not easy to check those facts. In any case, I don\u2019t have the impression that you can still organise a meaningful debate about woke<\/em>, because that term has been hijacked by all sorts of anti-democratic movements that mainly want to silence others themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018I\u2019m all for letting all kinds of voices be heard, but that doesn\u2019t mean you have to hurl unfiltered fact-free nonsense into the debate\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t–<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSaskia Bonger\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption>\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Bonger also disagreed with the compromise reached by the Kring board. The Kring is now withdrawing as responsible for the content of the congress, but is still paying all the bills. Kring chairman Agterberg will not deliver a welcome address at the congress, but will still be present. And a planned award for best cartoon or illustration will be dropped. Moreover, after the conference, the Kringbestuur wants to start discussions with all higher education media on how to arrange the responsibility of the congress in the future. For Bonger, this was too much of a compromise, so she stepped down from the board.<\/p>\n

Buijs still plans to participate<\/h2>

Agterberg himself, as editor-in-chief of the Utrecht-based DUB, will attend the conference, but not as chairman of the Kring. \u201cI will go, because I think it is important to have a Kring conference again after years of corona. And with that, the panel discussion also invited people with very different opinions. If it had been a lecture by Buijs, I wouldn\u2019t have gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organisers of the Kring conference say that despite all the commotion, Buijs plans to attend the debate.<\/p>\n\n\t

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