As in Britain, the Dutch tabloid press also uses private detectives, to check licence plates or bank accounts, for example, reports Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
Serious privacy violations, such as the phone hacking scandal at the former British gossip paper News of the World, do not seem to occur in the Dutch gutter press.
News of the World came under scrutiny after it emerged that some of its reporters hacked people’s voicemail, includingthe answer phone of a murdered girl. Some reporters even removed messages from people’s answering devices.
Dutch tabloids are thought to stay clear of such practices, the paper writes. But they are aware that getting information is becoming more and more expensive, says one private investigator.
At the same time, media are increasingly unconcerned about the exact provenance of the information they gather through intermediaries, he adds.
