HILVERSUM, 11/11/03 - The criticisms of the media made by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner are not shared by the deputy prime ministers Gerrit Zalm and Thom de Graaf. Nor do the Lower House, the daily newspapers and media experts consider the Christian democrat (CDA) ministers' statements appropriate.

The criticism Balkenende and Donner expressed last weekend of the way the Royal Family is portrayed in the media was not a government position, Zalm said yesterday. The conservative (VVD) vice-premier and finance minister can understand that his CDA colleagues were "personally irritated" by such phenomena as the TV program Egoland, in which puppets make the Orange family appear ridiculous, but "we did not decide as a cabinet to be annoyed," said Zalm.

Centre-left (D66) vice-premier De Graaf also distanced himself from the comments made by Balkenende and Donner. "The government should not adopt a position on satire. " De Graaf is also sometimes annoyed by certain programs, but there is "no reason for giving a public opinion about them" as a minister.

Donner said in the TV program Buitenhof on Sunday that the continuous attacks on the Royal Family by the serious as well as less serious media threatened to harm the monarchy. "Freedom of opinion and of the press requires responsibility, otherwise it turns into lawlessness and ends in degeneration. " Prime Minister Balkenende had already said on Friday evening that he was "unhappy" with satires on television in which the Royal Family were ridiculed.

The newspapers are not welcoming the appeal for reticent reporting on the Royal Family, either. The chief editors of the national dailies have invited Donner to a meeting in which they will insist that it is a "hopeless mission" to press for a moderate tone, chairman Broertjes of the guild of chief editors told Radio 1 news yesterday.

VVD parliamentary party leader Jozias van Aartsen stated that he "felt no need of a public discussion" about satirical programs and considers there are "More important matters" for the cabinet to concentrate on, such as fighting crime and the integration of immigrants. His D66 counterpart Boris Dittrich said the criticism expressed by Balkenende and Donner "sounded patronizing" and tended towards censorship. The Labor's (PvdA) opposition party's leader Wouter Bos even considered Balkenende had damaged the Royal House.

Balkenende's appeal for more reticence concerning satire relating to the Royal Family is patronizing, agreed O. Scholten, professor of communication studies at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). "It implies that people cannot distinguish between fact and fiction. This is extremely insulting to the population".

G. Schuijt, professor of information rights at the UvA, considered that the prime minister's remarks reeked of the 1930s and 1940s, when radio programs were censored in advance. "Balkenende and Donner fear for the future of the monarchy, but they have not asked themselves for a moment whether the monarchy could actually sometimes indeed be ridiculous. "