RNW Press Review - Wednesday 27 February 2008 - by Jacqueline Carver

The populist de Telegraaf opens with news that al-Qaeda has handed down a death sentence against Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders for his not yet released film about the Koran. "Jihad against Wilders" is splashed in huge letters across its front page. The paper writes that the al-Qaeda terrorist network has called on its followers to "bring us the throat of this unbeliever" and has also called for the Netherlands to be terrorised to prevent the film being shown.

De Telegraaf claims that the call to murder the Dutch MP was found on the terrorist organisation's website and was intercepted by a US intelligence gathering unit. The paper says the website praises Mohammed Bouyeri, the man who murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh, saying that he is an example to all good Muslims. The populist paper says the call to terror was posted on al-Qaeda's site just days after Mr Wilders, leader of the populist Party for Freedom, announced he was planning to make a film about the Koran.

* Silence

NRC.next's front-page headline is "stop whining, we're going" above a drawing of the Olympic rings and a little Dutch flag. The International Olympic Committee has recently been accused of ignoring human rights abuses by China and also those committed by regimes supported by Beijing but in an interview with the paper, Dutch IOC member Hein Verbruggen has dismissed the accusations. Mr Verbruggen says, "of course we discuss human rights, they have an effect on the games".

The interview comes a week after Jacco Verhaeren, coach of two of the Netherlands' top swimmers, said the IOC was playing down human rights abuses in China and called on the four Dutch IOC members to "stop holding their tongues" and asks, "what is so difficult about condemning executions?”

NRC.next writes that Amnesty International has reported that Beijing introduced a "re-education through work" programme in 2006 to clean up the city in time for the games but Hein Verbruggen firmly denies that the Olympic Committee is ignoring the situation in China.

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