The Eurovision photographer at the centre of the Joost Klein harassment case will not appeal the decision by Swedish police to drop the case against the Dutch singer.
As Aftonbladet reports, the unnamed photographer wants to move on with her life.
“My client wants to focus on her mental well-being,” her lawyer Kristoffer Ståhl told the newspaper.
“My client holds no grudge against Mr. Klein. She believes that violence should not be accepted anywhere, regardless of adrenaline or upset feelings.”
“During this process, she has had to endure hate and also threats online. Therefore, my client now wants to focus on her mental well-being, move on with her life and professional career as a photographer. My client will not appeal the decision to drop the case and will not comment further on this matter.”
Eurovision photographer won’t appeal Joost Klein case citing her mental health
You’ll recall that Joost was disqualified from the final after an incident backstage where he was accused of threatening the photographer.
The reasoning from the EBU at the time was that it would not be appropriate for Joost to participate in the Grand Final because police were investigating his threatening behaviour toward the photographer during said incident.
But in August Malmö’s Public Prosecutor’s Office officially dropped its investigation.
“Today I have closed the investigation because I cannot prove that the act was capable of causing serious fear or that the man had any such intention,” the senior prosecutor elaborated to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
“It was confirmed that there had been a movement towards the film camera by the accused and that the movement hit the film camera, but for it to be an unlawful threat I would have to assume, that his intention with that action was to induce serious fear towards or simply threaten her. Based on the situation, which was a quick sequence of events in a special situation, I cannot sufficiently prove that he did it to threaten her. I can’t conclude anything other than the intention was to influence the filming, he simply didn’t want to be filmed.”
During the police interrogation, the woman described how Joost became “angrier and angrier.”
Aftonbladet took part in the interrogation and reported on it earlier this week.
“I felt scared and vulnerable and everything happened so fast.”
Joost Klein said he did not fully remember the incident: “I don’t recognize myself in this situation.”
I wonder, if Joost could‘ve simply apologized right after the incident to settle things and save his participation in the final.
Now, there are two people who suffered…
The word is out, In the meanwhile AVRO/TROS is talking with the EBU and also with Joost about his participation in 2025. tbc.
The photographer should be banned from Eurovision forever. Shame on her.
I wonder if the decision would have been made as quickly if things were reversed, and the Swedish female photographer was accused of being aggressive toward Joost. But yeah, we are in Sweden, so I guess passive-aggressive actions are more acceptable than actually addressing both sides fairly. It seems easier to punish someone quickly and move on rather than dig deeper into what really happened, especially when it’s a foreign artist involved.
Joost was disqualified without enough proof of harmful intent, and that raises questions about fairness. We shouldn’t ignore whether the photographer also did something wrong, like filming him without consent. If we just move on, we miss the chance to talk about how these situations should be handled fairly. This shouldn’t be forgotten.
But as soon as the Swedish police started an official investigation, the EBU had to act to prevent further damage to the whole contest.
Just imagine if Joost had started and even perhaps even won Eurovision (although we now know that wouldn’t have happened), just for the Swedish justice to find him guilty of assault a few days later. From that point of view, there was no other choice than to disqualify him.
If anything, this whole episode should teach the artists simply not to behave in a way that could be misinterpreted.
Imagine Eden being disqualified instead
They could have for harrassing other participants by taking unwanted photographs
According to a recent survey 58% of the Dutchies wants to leave Eurovision, I’m very curious what the broadcaster is going to do. They have to decide before the 15th of this month whether it will be in or out.
just withdraw for good, rather than lazy talentless borderline boy J**st again, with his disgusting dutch language music
more english music is what we need
Please stop your thumbs-down fetish. It’s so annoying.
Eden, Dilja and Sarah McT are the most talentless women than him
I understand they can register to participate and still drop out before a certain date. But Cornald Maas of the Dutch selection committee has now said he feels they should take part.
And still, several months later some of y’all are still so blind to the fact that the EBU had no choice to disqualify Netherlands because JOOST WAS UNDER POLICE INVESTIGATION. You know, the police? Swedish LAW enforcement. I know many of you think the EBU is the be all and end all when it comes to Eurovision but the fact remains an external entity was brought into this by the camerawoman’s report. Imagine if Joost had participated, or even won, and was later found guilty of assault? Imagine what a disaster that would’ve been! Obviously, that was something the EBU… Read more »
and so they disqualified an artist who has done nothing wrong according to the police investigation, talking about a disaster.
Hit the camera because he didn’t want to be recorded by an official camera worker or a tv show? Yes he did, his behavior is inappropriate, that’s why he got disqualified. Hit a camera is not crime that’s why there´no trial, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do anything wrong.
They could have played the semifinal performance like they did during the jury final, stating that he could not perform without giving a reason. If they were concerned of there being some manner of safety risk, that would have been the correct course of action. There was no reason to punish the entire dutch delegation for the actions of the artist, especialy without sufficient proof of wrongdoing. If he were to win, head of delegation could collect the trophy. If he had in fact done a crime, official statements could be released later. If, as was the case, he was… Read more »
Where I come from filing a complaint against someone doesn’t mean the person is guilty, they had two options: let him perform and remove him from the scoreboard after the police investigation, or dq him before the police investigation just in case…
The only thing someone has to do next year, is file a complaint against a potential winner and…
‘The only thing someone has to do next year, is file a complaint against a potential winner and…’
…and police will laugh their *sses off because there needs to be a proper reason for them to get the suspicion of a wrongdoing. Joost Klein gave them enough reasons to investigate him in the first place.
You Dutch really should raise more questions about Joosts inappropriate behaviour instead of questioning the perfectly reasonable and justified reaction by the EBU.
Let’s be honest, EBU and SVT lost control over the event in 2024, in normal circumstances this incident would never have happened.
Finally! For once, a sane person in this comments section. Thank you!
All that fuss to get him DQ’d just to backtrack, vete alv
he shouldn’t have been selected in the first place honestly, such an unclassy piece of crap entry, unusual choice for a broadcaster like avrotros, especially them rejecting artists like douwe bob who wrote something special for Numidia, or another special artist Karsu with her lovely turkish song
pathetic attempt at winning more goodwill from the dutch public nothing more nothing less, i am not listening to europapa anymore 😉
Both of them had no chance at all, too average, not special enough, besides this Numidia is too dramatic. Sophia Kruithof (also at the last 5) on the other hand is a female Duncan, she sings straight through the soul. Joost was/is my first choice Sopia my second.
Sophia is a product of that stupid mother of 7 by 7 different men, Anouk
lol
You are seriously an extremely despicable person, do you know that?!?!! Your comments are pure bullying and awful, and Wiwibloggs should ban you from this comment section…
i’m only against Netherlands, not every other country
am expecting a wonderful contest, with wonderful commentary for me (Peter van der Veire GOD) and i am excited for our eurosong national selection, hoping Belle Perez is in the line up, also Dana Winner (might not happen but wishful thinking to have esc superfan Dana having her dream come true, with a nice malta style ballad written by marc paelinck)
Okay, so you are a Belgian hating the Dutch neighbour?
(If so, Belgium has a lot better artists than you are mentioning here. One of Belgium’s entries is still my all time favourite :))
“B-but he THREATENED me!!!!!!1111!!!!” :'( :'( :'(
“Okay, show us proof then?”
“LMAO actually never mind”
^^^^basically what just happened, big sign this was a fact load of nothing just as a lot of us had expected this whole time
whats done is done
Mental health my ***. These days anyone with the slightest minor setback blames everything on ‘anxiety’, ‘depression’ and the like. The term “mental health” has lost all significant meaning in favor of being used as an excuse for one’s own miserable shortcomings. I expect her to be no different, so don’t expect me to sympathize with this lady
I’m sorry but the complainant sounds like a Karen to me and if Joost did get angrier and angrier then why not just comply with his request and stop effing filming him.
Klein is the real Caren.
Did he run to the police?
Klein is more like a god, in the eyes of smug avrotros
i can see Netherlands staying away for 3 or 4 years, or maybe longer lol
but do i care, nope, i can also watch the contest on VRT, better commentary too with legendary Peter van der Veire 😉 you don’t scare me and without us competing, no stress for me, no voting for me, just enjoying the shows
Haha, this comment is so gratuitous. Are you sure it doesn’t matter to you? You are here every day to make cynical and hateful comments of your own country, so secretly it’s very important to you.
You are right!
it is important to me yes, avrotros always choosing wrong regarding whatever artists we send to esc, apart from 2022 which was one exception of something of quality, but other than that we only send turds so we won’t miss them in the contest lol
hoping North Macedonia, Monaco are returning as well
So in 2019 we’ve won with a turd? Maybe it’s not your taste but you are not Europe.
Probably an age thing he wants Numidia and Karsu to do Eurovision, music my 70 yrs old mom likes.
says someone who wants to send Numidia or Karsu 😉
of course since they aren’t dutch originally 😉 that’s why
or Dashni Morad
what do i care about dutch artists, NOTHING, dutch artists add nothing to the worldwide music scene
The only thing you add to the world is online hate and you know it. Get a life and enjoy the beautiful country you live in.
Die is te flauw voor woorden.
we’re supposed to feel sad for J**st because his parents are dead, BOO HOO
retire your career, frysian loser
O, you are Dutch. Big facepalm! Wat is er allemaal wel niet met jou gebeurd dat je zo zuur en negatief geworden bent. Vind op oprecht heel rot, Niet leuk! xx
He could have gone to the police when member of the Israeli delegation Keren P. was filming him backstage ( in a private area) , and published his pics online. Filming without consent is a crime, but he didn’t. So who’s the real karen here. (I’m talking about P. now, not the photographer involved with the incident.
Maybe the artists could film the so called ‘press’ too. That must generate a lot views that TikTok would love.
I’d say, both are. But then there are AVROTROS and RÚV, which appear to be on a whole new level of karenness.
This stupid D*lja Pet*rsd*ttir being herself
so in your opinion, the Camera woman has to stop doing her job because a contestant wasn’t to be recorded in a TV show? There’s no sense in what u are saying.We are not talking about paparazzi, we are talking about a camerawoman of SVT doing her work!
Montenegro: Montesong on 26, 27 November
Lady should be ashamed. She took the money from Israelis to provoke Joost and then they used his reaction to create drama and call the police. After covering his face with a flag during Eden’s speach he basically was a threat to Israeli propaganda, especially that he would have won the televote.
Then why didn’t you testify? ? That’s important information!
No conspiracy theories please
No naivety please
Do you have any proof for your accusations? If not, you’re just spreading anti-Semitism.
U are bot good making theories, Bambie was the only one who has opened about The Gaza situation, Joost is not a hero just to scream “why not” in the press room, if ur theory was true they should try to disqualify Bambie not Joost, who said NOTHING about the situation!
How could this lady have endured hate and threats? After all, her identity has never been made public. I have the idea that it is all being exaggerated.
People have ways. Look at Baby Reindeer.
How much money did she get? This case sucks. EBU and SVT, corruption is everywhere . If you don, t like the outcome we change it. This is how it works , unfortionally.
What outcome? The televoting results of the semis were published a long time ago. Even in his semi, Joost Klein was far from winning the televote. And obviously he would have gotten very little points from the juries.
Get a grip and stop writing stupid bullsh*t.
This is so sad for her. Being harrassed and and death threatened by thousands of Joost angry fans and probably Dutchies… She’s right to move on, but I’m sad she had to give up. But this sacrifice of the truth is for her mental health so I wish her the best. Stop normalizing violences against women, please!!!
Stop it Ellen! You’re overreacting.. violence against women my ***, this is about a person and in this case the photographer not respecting a performers boundaries.. she clearly didn’t understand the assignment
Why are you violent towards me? I just give my honest opinion ?
Stop framing, there was no violence, she filed a complaint because of a threat (that can’t be proven) not because of violence, it’s women like you who go to the police no matter what, who make real victims stay at home. And how do you know she was threatened by 1000’s of fans? Her identity was never made public. You are spreading lies again.
It’s because of people like you that normalize acts of violence that women get told “it’s not that important” while it is. Get lost you ab*ser complicit
Probably Dutchies… please stick to the facts no one knew who the lady was, they kept her name a secret (and so they should)
What’s infuriating is that EBU did nothing to stop the misinformation about Joost’s incident from spreading. No one online was a witness to this incident.
If you didn’t witness it, how do you know it is misinformation? That’s what the POLICE were investigating, it was not the job of the EBU to solve it.
Or comment on an ongoing police probe. Plus they had like 24 hours in the busiest week of their calendar year to figure this out. Tough.
If they can’t stand the heat… then you get disproportionate measures.
they made the wrong choice, that’s human, but now the least they can do is offer an apology instead of blaming everyone except for themselves
I don’t know, should they apologise? How’d that look like? ‘Hey Joost, we’re sorry you got yourself in trouble?’
It’s their party and thus their responsibility.
They could have let him compete with his Semi 2 performance. He did for the jury show and in 21 the Icelandic group competed with rehearsal footage as one of them had COVID. The Dutch broadcaster explained what happened from Joost POV the guy is on the autism spectrum and he had specifically asked not to be filmed after his performance as the song is about his dead parents and is emotional for him. I know that intimidation against women is a thing you need to be mindful about but some women will weaponise that to be entitled and like… Read more »
A Trial by media to save their own …
Quelle surprise
This community is just toxic. Shame on you.
Klein likely overreacted , the camera operator was likely pushy. However, the real problem here is the EBU, the organisation. There were many incidents, reports from different nations teams about not feeling safe, not being taken seriously. Some, including the later winner, even considered withdrawing. Clearly the organisation did not do their job. Instead of dealing with this, they punished Klein over one such incident and in doing so they removed a prominent competitor from the competition. If the EBU does not admit fault and clean house, I don’t see how the Eurovision Song Contest escapes without losing a lot… Read more »
I’d also automatically qualify the Netherlands to the final next year as an apology too.
OMG I’m getting so so damn tired of pointing out and explaining one obvious fact that makes the difference with the Joost case so I’m gonna write it out in caps to help you:
IT WAS REPORTED TO THE POLICE.
THE POLICE WERE INVOLVED.
IT WASN’T ON THE EBU TO INVESTIGATE.
THEY DO NOT HAVE LEGAL POWER IN SWEDEN.
Surprised she didn’t bulldoze his room and then build a settlement on it.
Yeah, that’s what Swedish camera women are famous for.
the woman is not to blame. if you feel threatened then you feel threatened and then you should have all the space to file a complaint. The organization should then deal with that wisely. The woman also filed a complaint with the police and they also investigated. The one who did it wrong is the EBU, guilty was the answer without a good and proper investigation. all attention had to disappear from a certain country about which multiple complaints were received. And they must have thought, at least the sponsor, this is the way. How can you say that you… Read more »
https://youtu.be/a7c5s7hSbAg?feature=shared
Watch this, from SVT today
Warning, the Israeli HoD is playing the victim card VERY HARD
No side is innocent in this real mess that was this years Eurovision, the main difference is that only some of the factors here have taken responsibility for their part in all this.
EBU and Israel has shown no sign whatsoever of self examination for their actions, instead they play the victim card over and over again which only leads to more and more hate towards Israel:
That is what makes me angry at the moment
Super interesting watch… Thanks so much for the link.
What I never understood with this case is that it all happened backstage, with cameras and everything (I mean, that’s kinda the starting point of this mess), but we don’t have a single footage of what happened? Plus you’re telling me that there aren’t security cameras covering every single corner in the arena and in backstage for such an event? If so it could be interesting that EBU and organizers to rethink their security plans… In the end we will never know the truth. I will never blame a victim but I’m also not gonna blame Joost because it seems… Read more »
I don’t really blame the EBU. The woman filed a report with the police, they are the authority in charge of the investigation. The EBU did the right thing by stepping aside. I think. In any other workplace environment, if a complaint is made against somebody (especially with police involvement) the employee is suspended until the matter is resolved. That’s due process.
Remember how Will Smith clobbered Chris Rock at the Oscars, on live television… then got a standing ovation as he accepted his Best Actor award. Life is funny.
And afterwards he was given a 10 year ban from the Academy Awards.
He really should have been thrown out on to the street immediately, though. Not given a standing ovation.
Chris Rock deserve it because he’s making jokes at Will’s wife and family in front of so many celebrities at Academy Awards. Will might be ban for 10 years but at least he is proud to stand up for his spouse and family. I guess you won’t like it if someone makes jokes about your spouse and family in the public
Chris Rock is a comedian and guess what a comedian does? They make jokes. Will Smith and his spouse have been embarrassing themselves for years. He and his wife are both disgusting.
Even though he’s a comedian there’s a limit, you don’t go digging people private life and make jokes in front of the public ( celebrities) and that’s disrespectful,if he’s overboard that’s what he deserves,
Comedians can pick their targets and Rock chose to target a woman with a condition. Funny how everyone is all defend women with Klein but Smith can’t defend his own wife. Interesting. Yes he overacted but so did the lady in Malmö.
I would protect my partner in the same way! #TeamWillSmith
I agree regarding the EBU… They were caught between a police complaint and a TV show. That said I don’t think they did a good job throughout the contest. ESC was like actual ‘the wild wild west’ as opposed to the Icelandic national entry. PS: the use of the term ‘victim’ in here is getting tired. A victim doesn’t close off their complaint with the phrase ‘they hold no grudge’. Had something beyond a dual-responsibility fracas occured, grudges would be tightly held. Anywho… Over and out… Until someone leaks some ‘found footage’… My favorite horror type 🙂
Happy Autumn ??
Yeah, the EBU definitely DEFINITELY could have handled other matters better, such as the behaviour of certain delegations etc.
Happy autumn, doctor.
They could have let Klein compete with his filmed Semi 2 performance. He wasn’t going to win as the televote was too split, his nemesis country had their thumb on the scales there and it wasn’t a jury song in fact we know that Klein’s jury score was in the middle of their ranking but interestingly enough higher than Israel’s. Switzerland were always going to win but were helped by this and Slimane for France kinda stuffing up his jury performance who was Nemo main rival with the juries.
In many companies and countries people don’t go to the police for a small incident like this, when people get mad at each other they will fix it internally, EBU never mentioned the very tensed circumstances under which the incident took place, circumstances they created.
The contest was happening in Sweden though and maybe that’s how things happen in Sweden. It’s every person’s right to go to the police if they wish anyway. That’s a sign of a free country actually, rather than things being covered up within a company. The EBU does not rule law and justice in any country, and doesn’t in Sweden either. They had to defer to the police.
EBU failed in protecting both employees and artists
Well played Israel!
Wonder how much she got paid by Israelis to create that whole drama
By the way, why is this woman’s identity not disclosed? If she is so sure about her honest behaviour in this case, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?
Why, so you can harass and dox her?
Have you heard of the right to be anonomous?
If you destroy someone’s right to take part in the final, because you think you are in the right, at least have the guts to be honest about your identity. Anyone can claim anything anonymously.
I think I know who she is, but I’don’t want people to hurt, harm or harass her, she felt threatened and she went to the police, we all have the right to do that, it’s the EBU who acted too fast, without a proper and independent investigation, blame them.
Lol yeah because the EBU are a higher law than the police… *palmface*
Yeah, except it wasn’t claimed anonymously. The woman went to the police, they do not accept anonymous accusations.
Dutch media clearly state that the woman had bothered Joost before and so had gone against the agreement that had been made not to bother the artist again. Now that the police say there is no evidence, the woman obviously feels she does not have a solid case to pursue and gives in. Because there never has been a solid case. If I were Joost, I would sue the EBU and the woman for damages. A lot of damages. People must be considered innocent until proven guilty and Joost’s unjust case clearly shows this once again. By making him miss… Read more »
They are calling it a day and that’s the right thing to do, enough is enough.
He was considered innocent until proven guilty under the eyes of the Swedish law. However, he was still under a police investigation and therefore it was innapropriate for him to be allowed to perform in the contest. Simple.
Just because there was no evidence does not mean anything happened. Perhaps the woman did feel threatened, who knows how we would act in a similar situation .
Perhaps both did wrong or maybe none of them did anything wrong . None of us know the full situation. But I refuse to believe the woman is some sort of Karen, things are never black or white
The verdict is out and the best thing is really to move on, forget and live your best life. We should never judge or scorn anybody we dont actually know anything about
Just because something could’ve been happened won’t mean that a disqualification was appropriate.
Joost was under police investigation therefore disqualification was entirely appropriate.
A lot of the comments here and on the Facebook post about it are absolutely disgusting. People wonder how other celebrities get away with such vile acts for so long. This is why. Because their “fan base” fiercely defends that celebrity, make all sorts of excuses for them, and they go on a smear campaign of the accuser/victim which makes it impossible for any victim to come forward or appeal. Every time someone says an accuser should be sued/never work again just because of lack of evidence against the accused, it contributes to other victims of crime being too afraid… Read more »
We dont know the act or what actually happened so you can’t say Joost got away with it. All we know is that he did a movement towards her. But we don’t know the full story. We don’t know what movement or what happened before. Maybe she was told to not take pictures and still did it, or maybe she never got the message.
Agreed, but hardly surprising that people who defend an abuser turn out to be abusive themselves.
Stop talking like Joost is Jimmy effing Saville – he pushed a camera however immidated the woman felt calling him an abuser insults real abuse victims.
Please don’t compare those cases with this one, pressure was high, Joost got too angry, overreacted, immediately apologised and that’s it, People said ugly things about the photographer, but some people, especially here on wiwibloggs, said very ugly things about Joost as well. People should stick to the facts.
Let this be the end of this. It was wrong of Joost, that’s true, but I hope that incompetent woman becomes and remains unemployed from anything journalism/photography related.
I’m not a Joost stan in the slightest, but this whole case was stupidity on an improbably large scale that never should have happened to begin with. All sides consisted of wrongdoing.
But with that said, let this be the end, close the book, start a new chapter
Her words now are worthless to us. She could have talked it out with Joost and the Dutch delegation when it happened and not ruin Eurovision for millions of Dutch fans.
We hold a grudge.
In 2022 there was actually footage that can still be found online of Michael Ben David kissing Sheldon Riley on the mouth against his will and slapping one of the Advahov brothers in the face. But we all know that for EBU some countries are more equal than others.
Yes there are different rules for different countries. That is obvious. It is clear that by EBU a threatening movement is a worse offence than actual physical harassment…
They could’ve filed a police report if they felt those actions constituted harassment. It’s not about the EBU, it was the fact the police were involved (so tired of spelling this out to people).
Joost was wrong to do what he did, and he suffered heavy consequences as a result. Perhaps an anger management course would do him good. I have no hate toward this woman at all. It’s possible she was also in the wrong, if she was knowingly filming him against his will. I don’t know. We’ll probably never know. Hopefully we can put this matter to bed and never speak of it again.
There isn’t a case. She DOES NOT have a case. There never was a case…
Well there was because the police were investigating one. Pretty basic stuff really.
God, I’m so f***ing done with this. And whoever this woman is, she should never be able to get herself a backstage pass. She’s the one who let Joost and our entire country being disqualified.
Not to say that everything was on her, because the EBU made a huge mess as well. But our disqualification was the cherry on top and I don’t see many Dutch fans, including myself, who’d like to see us return in 2025. F*** this. She makes my blood boil after reading this.
So every victim which sadly cannot prove something happened should just stay quiet?
Wow, what a wonderful point of view.
Oh, so we should label anyone as abuser, when there is no evidence they did anything?
How do you know she is the victim? What evidence do we have of that? Just because she claimed something doesn’t mean it actually happend.
She was unprofessional, and broke the rules, it’s her fault, SHE was the abuser. Emotional abuse is a real thing you know.
“Victim.” Lol.
This story smells more and more like bulls*it. Very unexpected… *cough*