10 July 2001. Thanks to Jos Horikx for article and translation.
In a Dutch newspaper the following article appeared:
( http://www.trouw.nl/artikelactueel/994441009859.html )
'Publieke opinie mag best beïnvloed worden' (right side of page)
It is about an police officer (a police-spokesman, to be even more accurate) who said that it must be permitted for the police (and other services) to "manage" public opinion.
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Article by Louis Cornelisse
2001-07-07
Amsterdam - The administration, but also big companies like the Dutch Railroads, fail to mobilize public opinion for their cause. Their fear of being accused of propaganda is not appropriate for this time anymore. Police-spokesman Pieter Beljon says in a interview with Trouw [Dutch national newspaper]:
"The problem is that if one confines himself to pure enlightenment, the wrong ways of understanding things remain unchanged. That goes too far in my opinion. At the very moment that matters get into disequilibrium, the managing of public opinion comes into the picture"
In the thesis for which he graduated yesterday as a master of Corporate Communication at the Erasmus University Beljon, he stresses that affecting public opinion does not necessarily imply propaganda. During the European Football Championship last year he had as a police spokesman manipulated the feelings of the population. He did so by addressing himself directly to the media giving them information.
In his view there is nothing improper with persuasive publicity. But in doing so he violates the directives of the State Governments Council for Information. Those directives state that information can only be used to influence the public in order to engage people with a public issue, like encouraging people to vote.
Beljon thinks those rules are not appropriate for these times anymore: "It is nonsense to say that providing information is value-free. Once a democratic choice is made - The Championship will be a jolly good party, but hooligans can show up - than you have to fight with equal means so that you can defend yourselves. Also an administration cannot leave information to the free forces of the market. Before you even know it you can, as and administration, make a fool of yourself"
[The following is only understandable for people who have knowledge about Dutch interior affairs.]
Belon also gives exemples from commercial enterprises. The management of the "Nederlandse Sppowegen" (Dutch Railroads) still had the sympathy of the public in 1996 because they 'managed public opinion.' In 2001, however, they seem to have forgotten how to do this. It cannot be understood why they didn't reason the yell 'rondje rond de kerk' [something concerning a labor-conflict] to the dung-hill. When something like this happens one has to take over control"
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