Dutch Government Release MH17 Crash Files, But Then Censors Info

Fact checked

The Dutch government released documents that contained information about the aftermath of the crashed Malaysia Airlines MH17 Flight on Tuesday last week, but with most of the information in the documents censored. This has left people asking what is being hidden from the public and why. 

Dutch broadcaster RTL News has said that it will take the government to court in order to force them to reveal what information was redacted from the documents. 

Dailyjournal.net report:

“We want the relevant facts so that a serious reconstruction can be made of the Cabinet’s performance” after the crash, RTL’s deputy editor, Pieter Klein, said on the broadcaster’s website.

Flight 17 crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 people on board. Dutch crash investigators and police are probing the cause, which is believed to be a surface-to-air missile strike.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government is coming under increasing pressure to reveal all it knew about the risks of allowing passenger planes to fly over conflict-torn eastern Ukraine last year.

Rutte also has avoided explicitly saying that a missile downed the Boeing 777 as it was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The government says it has to be cautious in what it says because Dutch authorities are leading criminal and civil investigations into the crash.

The release of documents appeared to do little to cast new light on what the government knew. The pages include agendas of crisis meetings to discuss the disaster and plans for the repatriation of bodies found among the wreckage.

In a cover letter sent to media organizations that made freedom of information requests, the government said redactions were made for a variety of reasons, including to protect the privacy of individuals, in the interests of the Netherlands’ relationship with other states and to not reveal details of security around Dutch personnel working near the crash site.