Bart De Pauw responds to the fuss surrounding the documentary: “I have been living with shame and regret for years”

Television maker Bart De Pauw has responded on Instagram to the commotion that arose after VRT CEO Frederik Delaplace decided not to broadcast the documentary ‘The process that nobody wanted’ at first and then not to broadcast it.

“I have been living with the shame and regret of what I did for years,” De Pauw writes in a message on social media, but also: “When is enough enough?”

He says that he has “sent his apologies to the ladies”, but that they “didn’t feel sincere and were not accepted”. He says he realizes that he has “caused suffering” to the women.

De Pauw acknowledges that he has had several meetings with Delaplace and VRT content director Ricus Jansegers. According to the TV maker, the VRT bosses also wanted to involve documentary maker Tess Uytterhoeven in the conversations to “create a constructive framework” and find a way in which he “as a perpetrator of transgressive behavior” can make a positive contribution to the metoo -discussion.

“The only thing I asked, if the series were to be broadcast, was to remove those matters that were factually incorrect, the matters that were not consistent with statements in the file, with the investigation, with the verdict and also with the framing of the matter. other to remove my wife.”

He also says: “I want to be clear. I was wrong.” He calls the documentary “a public shame” that he and his family have to endure again. “Can we then hope that it will be over for good after that? That I have served my sentence and can focus on the future? When is enough enough?”

Major error of judgment

As a reminder: VRT boss Delaplace decided last week not to broadcast the documentary ‘The trial that nobody wanted’, in which victims of De Pauw have their say, for the time being. He did this because an apology from the TV maker was imminent. That decision provoked a storm of criticism and on Tuesday the VRT announced that the documentary would be broadcast after all. One statement referred to a “major error of judgment”. The three unions at the VRT – VSOA, ACV and ACOD – hold Delaplace personally and not the public broadcaster as a whole responsible for the fuss.

Delaplace’s decision also caused a great deal of commotion outside Reyerslaan. In one evening, two hundred people from the cultural sector signed a sharp open letter to Media Minister Benjamin Dalle (CD&V). By Tuesday afternoon there were already more than six hundred. Among them are actresses such as Maaike Neuville and Hilde Van Mieghem, actors such as Mathias Sercu and Josse De Pauw, TV makers, screenwriters and directors such as Stijn Coninx and Michael R. Roskam. Even VRT faces Fien Germijns, Siska Schoeters and Francisco Schuster openly support the same message.