Anticipating on the future banning of the Dutch anti-brothel law in Holland, the Amsterdam council starts a semi-licensing system for the exploiters of prostitution-companies. Juridically this is impossible because the exploitation of a brothel is illegal, but the Dutch steer the well-known ‘pragmatical middle course’ of tolerance. The license system has to fight the criminal elements in the prostitution branch like, illegal- and minor prostitution, abuse and takes care of the improvement of the position of the sex worker.
In this ARD Tagesthemen reportage brothels in the Red Light district are checked by police and fire brigade, brothel owner Jan Bik applies for a license at the Amsterdam city hall, sex workers are interviewed in his clubs and street worker Therese van der Helm from the Amsterdam health department gives the other side of the story. Her main question is: ‘where will the illegal prostitutes go?’.
Activities: propose item idea, research, set-up, planning and accompanying filming.