THE HAGUE, 03/11/06 - Press columnists are leftwing en masse, according to a survey by weekly HP/De Tijd. Among dailies and news magazines, 28 columnists are members of a political party, including 16 Labour (PvdA) members.

De Volkskrant chief editor Pieter Broertjes is one of the 16 PvdA members, as are his columnists Marcel van Dam, Ronald Plasterk and Kees Beekmans. As well, De Volkskrant has two leftwing Green (GroenLinks) members, in Evelien Tonkens and Pieter Hilhorst. Former VVD MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the odd one out at the Netherlands' second largest newspaper.

Evening newspaper NRC Handelblad has three columnists (Heleen Mees, Margo Trappenburg and Flip de Kraan) who are members of a political party - all of the PvdA. Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool also leans to the left with two PvdA members (Bart Tromp and Felix Rottenberg), one GroenLinks member (Karin Spaink) and one Socialist Party (SP) member - Derk Sauer.

Algemeen Dagblad has four columnists who are members of parties, but these are varied: GroenLinks, VVD, D66 and Party for the Animals. At Trouw, HP/De Tijd only discovered one columnist with party membership: Gerbert van Loenen of the Christian democrats (CDA).

At the biggest newspaper, De Telegraaf, HP/De Tijd found no columnists who were party members. Arend-Jan Boeksteijn is a conservative (VVD) party member, but he recently left to sit in the Lower House for the VVD.

Among the weeklies, PvdA membership also scored well. Vrij Nederland, Elsevier and De Groene Amsterdammer together have four columnists who are party members. Again, these are all PvdA members.

In total, HP/De Tijd counted 28 columnists who are party members, including 16 PvdA, 4 GroenLinks, 3 CDA, 2 VVD members and one member each of the SP, D66 and Party for the Animals.